! LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, i 



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JUNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 



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ARROWS 

FROM MY QUIVER; 

POINTED WITH 

THE STEEL OF TRUTH AND WINGED BY FAITH 
AND LOVE. 

SELECTED FROM THE PRIVA TE PAPERS OF 

REV. JAMES CAUGHEY. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

REV. DANIEL WISE, D. D. 






/NEW YORK: 
W. C. PALMER, JR.,. PUBLISHER, 

(SUCCESSOR TO FOSTER 4 PALMER, JR.) 

No. 14 BIBLE HOUSE. 
1867. 



# 



o 6 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1868, by 

W. C . PALMER. Jr., 

[n the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



INTKODUCTOKY NOTE. 



mT is now twenty years since the writer made his first acquaint- 

?,r ance with the Rev. James Caughet, and his very remarkable la- 

f $p? hors as a revivalist. After carefully observing Mr. C.'s methods 

"mcft durin g a revival in Providence, R. L, and in Fall River, Mass., 

^£aC 1 felt convinced that a republication of the best portions of his 
journals and letters, which had already appeared in England, could not 
fail of doing great good in this country. Guided by this conviction, I pre- 
pared a volume for the press, under the title of " Methodism in Earnest," 
and, in connection with the Rev. R. W. Allen, gave it to the public. Its 
success was immediate and complete. Thousands of copies were rapidly 
sold, and very soon I heard from many ministers, assuring me that the 
book had greatly quickened their own souls, and given them new insight 
into the philosophy of Scriptural revivals. They also assured me that 
the circulation of the book had been followed by a powerful work of 
God in their stations and circuits. 

Confirmed by these facts iu my original convictions, and encouraged by 
the large sale of the first volume, I made further selections from Mr. 
Caqghey's published writings and from his manuscripts, which were also 
published by myself and Mr. Allen, under the titles of " Revival Miscel- 
lanies." "Earnest Christianity Illustrated," &c. The sale of these vol- 
umes was immense, and they were productive, as I was repeatedly 
assured, of glorious revivals of religion iu many places. 

In obedience to the call of the church, I came to this city nearly twelve 
years since, and, as required by the discipline, withdrew my connection 
with the publication of books. My dear friend, Mr. Allen, continued the 
business, and brought out still other volumes from Mr. Caughey's fertile 
pen, which also met with great favor from the religious public. 

Meanwhile, Divine Providence kept open effectual doors for Mr. 
Caughey in England, where he remained for several years, laboring 
with his wonted success. At length it appeared to him that his future 
field of labor would bo in this country. He returned, and a few weeks 
since I was agreeably surprised to see his face in my office. He informed 
me that he was about to issue two new vclumes of selections from his 
journals and papers, and requested me to read them, to introduce them 
to the public, especially to the readers of his former works, and to render 
him some other trifling aids in bringing them through the press. 



IV INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

Though crowded, even to burdensomeness, with official work, I nev- 
ertheless consented, for the sake of " auld lang syne," to do so. I 
read his manuscripts, and now take great pleasure in commending this 
and its companion volume to the favorable consideration of the children 
of God. 

In " Glimpses of Life in Soul Saving," * Mr Caughey largely portrays 
the inner life of a revivalist. In this he deals with the external obsta- 
cles which impede the progress of a revival, and grapples vigorously, in 
Ins own peculiar style, with the objections of enemies, opposers, and 
critics of all classes. His pertinent replies to his objectors give charac- 
ter and value to this volume. The objections he meets are not put as 
found in books, but as they were sent to him in notes, letters, and news- 
paper articles while engaged in soul saving. Consequently, if not new 
— and there is nothing really new to be found in any of the modern 
objections to Christianity or its workers — they are fresh and unique in 
form. The style of Mr. Caughey's replies are also unique, as well as 
pertinent and conclusive. 

These objections and replies include a wide range of questions relating 
to the operations of truth on unregenerate minds, and on awakened sin- 
ners; they also teach numerous points of Christian experience and 
Christian worth. These subjects are treated pointedly but discursively. 
They are put so as to be really instructive and very entertaining. Fre- 
quently solid arguments are found closely packed in small nutshells. 
They are often adorned with brief, telling quotations from known and 
rare authors. They are, as the title of the book implies, sharp arrows 
fitted to strike home to the heart of the adversaries of the kingdom of 
God. 

I do not recommend the style and method of this book as models for 
others to imitate. In fact, no man can be a mere imitator without de- 
stroying his individuality — the thing out of which, above all others, his 
personal power grows. Mr. Caughey's individuality is strongly marked 
in his writings, and any man trying to do and say things as he says and 
does them, would probably spoil himself. But while the peculiar style 
and method of this book should not be imitated, they may prove very 
suggestive, and may furnish much valuable material for the use of 
Christian workers. Many of its arrows may be made to fly from their 
bows. 

Finally, this is a living book. Its author was baptized with the tongue 
of fire long ago, and his pen was moved by a soul which felt the divin- 
ity of the truth when he wrote. The Christian reader will recognize, 
in the life breathing from these pages, the counterpart of that which was 
breathed into his own soul when, through faith, he first touched the 
cross of Jesus and felt his heart strangely warmed. Believing this book 
likely to be the means of stirring up multitudes to work for Jesus with 
renewed zeal, I commend it to the religious public. 

Daniel "Wise. 

ENGLEWOOD, N. J., Nov. 26, 1-867. 

* Just issued by W. C. Palmer, Jr. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EXPLANATIONS TO A HEARER — PULPIT ARCHERY. 

Preaching, differences of style — The old farmer's critique — The long-bow and the cross- 

' bow — Assertion and argument — Arrows for tire cross-bow — Direct aim — Charming 

a snake — Alcestes and the stars — Jonathan's bow 13 

CHA PTER II. 

CHRISTIANS DEFENDED. 
Consistency a jewel — The loadstone and the diamond — A bad inference — An author's 
privilege — Christian perfection, its standard — Liability to err — Perfection, absolute, 
"rejected — Professors the worldling's study — God our judge, comfort of— Mute at the 
balance — Revolving lights — Lunar comparisons — The glass and the cistern — The 
old man's victory over the new — Grace for ten, but scarcely enough for himself— 
Backsliders the scomer's triumph 19 

CHAPTER III. 

CHRISTIANS — UNSAFE TO MEDDLE WITH THEM. 

A severe rebuke — Out of hell through Christian influence — The stag and his pursuers- 
Prayers of Christians dangerous — A queen afraid of a teacher— The young skeptic 
silenced. 28 

CHAPTER IV. 

REVIVAL PHENOMENA. 
The troubles of Israel — Luther, "the trumpet of rebellion" — Trouble among sin- 
ners—A simile— Spiritual sea-sickness— Vainglory— The life of faith 32 

CHAPTER V. 

A GREAT QUICKENING. 

Revival surprise— Underground rivers — Directness in preaching — An impetuous age — 
Humility — Gibbon, his style — Divine aid — Ezekiel's directness among the dry 
bones 35 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE OPPOSITION — ON HINTS TO "AN OPPOSITIONIST." 
An Imperial principle — Heaven's gate, its motto — "A stone in the other pocket" — 
Politian and his shadow — Burns on happiness — St. Paul's tenderness — Weak Chris- 
tians and alarming preaching — New converts and Satan's grudge — The lion in a 
storm 40 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

REVIVAL — TRUTH AND ITS EFFECTS. 

Revival preacher and his troubles — Young believers, without their shield — The law of 
God a terrible power — Vivid experiences, "flying from command to command" — 
A glimpse of the Cross — Fiery serpents — Jesus, frequent mention of — Bleating of 
the Jambs — Grunters against goodness — Tender ears — A pinch in the sermon — 
Learning the alphabet — Faith a master-spring — Numa's confidence — The way to 
conquer 44 

CHAPTER VIII. 

HINTS TO PROFESSORS. 
The upsetting sin — Old Negro — An old fable — Counter-motion — A Scotch divine, strik- 
ing remark of— Sheridan's simile— Instability and firmness — Aristotle's test— Wis- 
dom, Socrates' idea of— Divinity and science, difference — Example — Nero's com- 
plaint — Hume, and gloomy Christians — Skeptic, conversion of one — Gospel, a great 
time for— An evil angel— Bell, reporting its own motions 51 

CHAPTER IX. 

METHOD WITH QUESTIONISTS. 
Question-sick — A blind man's question — Curious questions— Crotchety questions— Trac- 
ing a pinnacle — Satanic deception — Hell, neither tolerable nor terminable — Scrip- 
tures, two notions not found there — A false sentiment 58 

CHAPTER X. 

DEALING WITH CRITICS. 
Drunken opinions, phrase defended — Text, manner of treatment — A cunning painter — 
Back-handed blows — Preaching, " a faultless style " — Quintilian — Versatility of style 
— Eloquence, thoughts on — Oratory and conscience — Mismanaging the rouge. .. 63 

CHAPTER XI. 

PULPIT ELOQUENCE. 

Preaching, a principle of action — Offended hearers — Abruptness — A flowery style — Pic- 
torial preaching — A lofty style — Passion and eloquence — Hot springs — A serious 
inquiry — Simple eloquence — A wondrous rod — Sympathy, opening the flood- 
gates - 69 

CHAPTER XII. 

THOUGHTS ON PULPIT STYLE CONTINUED. 
St. Paul's apology for his — The breeze of nature — " People leaders" — A beautiful simile 
— An old proverb — Eloquence, a charm — A polished style — A fireside fact — Out-of- 
the-way preaching — Bounding a thought — Entire devotion 76 

CHAPTER XIII. 

DEFENDS HIS METHOD OF PREACHING. 

Critics — The old doctor's motto — Fearful state of sinners — Salting them — Bitter waters 
— Living by their sins — irritable skeptics — Sin and uneasiness — Salvation only in 
Christ , 83 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A BOW TO THE CRITICS. 

St. Paul's annoyances — Ambition, misstating that of the preacher — The herd of deer — 
The atoning death — Hearers, sponges, strainers, sieves — "A candle is no star" — 
The candle defended — A star-gazer in the ditch — The unfashionable lantern — The 
Scripture candle 91 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER XV. 

DEALING WITH UNEASY CONSCIENCES. 

The wondrous book — The adorned idol — Old sores — A just critique — False inference — 
Pascal's question — Promises of God, a right to them 100 

CHAPTER XVI. 

RUNNING FIRE ! 

Merry way to misery — Trifling with conviction — Birds of Norway — Blasts of contradic- 
tions — Long-suffering of God — Plucking death from the tree of life — Devil, argument 
for — God, his economy with sinners — A death-bed confession — The arrow on the 
string — The despairing penitent 104 

CHAPTER XVII. 

REVIEWING. 

Preaching, a good time — Material for a sennon — Fancy's kite — God, his love — Jesiu — 
Atheism, converted from — Sins, what became of them? no happiness without know- 
ing — The Lamb of God — Jesus, abasement of — Divinity of Christ — Faith, the eye 
of the soul — Witness of the spirit 109 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE HOLY TRINITY. 

Doctrine of, shines in the Scriptures — Baptism — Benediction — To be believed, not com- 
prehended — Hilary, of the fourth century — A triad of trinities — Not a Christian be- 
liever who disbelieves this — A form of infidelity to deny — Divinity of Christ, to deny 
is to justify the Jews in crucifying him — At home in Scripture — A sad story of a So- 
cinian in Saxony — Picture of Christ in a ball-room, a singular conversion 116 

CHAPTER XIX. 

PROSOPOPOEIA. 

Inequality of pulpit style, a reason for — Supporting a reputation — Personification the 
handmaid of eloquence — Stripling impressions — Biblical prosopopoeia — A deputation 
from the trees — Replying mountains — Voices from the firmament — A bold allu- 
sion 123 

CHAPTER XX. 

A PLAIN TALK WITH "A PLAIN MAN." 

Intolerance of the Bible — Our Lord and the Scribes, contracted teaching — Sinners, how 
"thrown into conviction " — The awe-band — "Tyrannical preaching — A formidable 
enemy, Satan — Mind at the worst — The devil's titles defined and defended — Not 
a mythical being — God, as set forth in Scripture — God and Satan liked and disliked 
by sinners, Baxter's testimony 130 

CHAPTER XXI. 

FLOWERY PREACHING. 

Flowers of inspiration — Luxuries of oratory — Flowers, when out of place — Flower-wreath- 
ed hammers — A relief from prosiness — The tawdry hearer — Flowers and barren- 
ness — War and flowers — Flower-consuming preaching — Pillar of fire — World, preach- 
ing which it can or cannot stand before — An early lesson in the ministry — Preachers 
of olden times — Jay's remark 138 

CHAPTER XXII. 

MORE ABOUT AN EMBELLISHED STYLE OF PREACHING. 
Christ's flower— Taste and piety — Nature's embellishments, flowers— Bouquet in the 
hand of a corpse — Antidote to dulness — Origen and the flowers — Hopes for a revi- 
val — Wild flowers, planted beside a rugged truth — The reward 143 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

FURTHER THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. 

Hearers, different tastes — A figurative style — Jesus, the Beloved of the Church,' a song of 
triumph — Jesus armed with vengeance — Man, back turned on God — The Gospel, 
touching their swords when hearing it — Merry sinners — A trio of insects — Virgil and 
the bees — Life in the hives 148 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

TO AN ANGRY HEARER. 

The image in the glass — The unadorned mirror — The belfry of memory — Silent repent- 
ance recommended 157 

CHAPTER XXV. 

A QUIET EXPLANATION — FACTS ABOUT PREACHING. 

Preaching simply, what ? — Sieve in a river — The art of hearing — Sudden conviction — 
Bunyan's experience when preaching — Anybody's style — Effective preaching, its 
sorrows and its joys — Directness, effects of— A general truth made personal — A curve 
in the lightning — The spreading cloud — "Mind the main" — The worst companion, 
conscience — A striking remark of one 161 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

TO A WORDY DOUBTER — PROLIXITY. 

Verbosity — A single aim— Lost in a fog — Packing a sentence — " Don't quarrel " — Fling- 
ing feathers — A surprise step^— Small thoughts — Pompous words — A meagre field — 
Infidelity arms the mind against God— Seeking *' the virtues " in a wrong direction 
— Christianity, an epitome of— Dogmaticalness accounted for — Truth and brevity — 
Bible, a system of human nature — Rousseau's remark on the Bible 168 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

CLOSELY PRESSED. 
Bible, an argument for, in virtue and vice — Enemies of the Bible, who ? — Death-bed 
inferences — Out of humor — A haunted heart — Death, indifference to, a fancy — The 
dying poet — a death scene— Aristotle— The preference 179 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

USED UP. 

Spinning the same thread — The great want — The wondrous Book — Languages into 
which translated — " Meaning blazed in heavenly light" — Responsible for our belief 
— Satan's master-stroke — The Irish landlady — "Troublesome thought" — The 
baron's freak — Fond of " nots " — An armed conscience 187 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE STRAY ARROW. 

The unintended mark — Advice to a pierced sinner — A singular inquiry — Luther on faith 
— Light to reason by — Plato's caution, a remarkable acknowledgment — New Testa- 
ment, immortality of the soul — On reading nothing but the Bible — Contending for 
the faith — Worldly company — Bible abridgment — Bible in chains — Aggression, ad- 
vised to — Stanzas from an old poem 195 

CHAPTER XXX. 

RECONNOITRING INFIDEL POSITIONS. 

Truth, a Frenchman's remark — Revivals awaken inquiry — Swiss divine, an observation — 
Doubt, a stout one — Devils hopeless — Marasmus of indifference — A Spanish Jesuit's 
notion — Demosthenes' testimony of the Athenians — Error betraying itself— Weak 
heads — An idol on the altar — Plutarch story about the "chief good," could not miss 
it — Chips from the same block — Depravity, strength of— Victory over 204 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

" LATE AN INFIDEL " — A PARLEY. 

Satan's colossal idea — Infidel sarcophagus — A mother's influence — The test of experience 
— Spirit of bondage— Plato's acknowledgment — Infidel raft 211 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE BIBLE. 

Hope for the heathen — Bible, absolute necessity of— Ship-yard — Weighing anchor — 
Alone on the sea — Man, the ship without a sail — Scriptures adapted to him — Sails 
for the heavenly port — The coast of Glory 215 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

AWAKENED — GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

Bible rejected, consequences — Perilous guides — Principles, how to judge of them — The 
will, a master-wheel, a Port Royal, a throne for Deity — Bible, will to believe 
it — Sin not ripe till it reaches the will — New birth, necessity of 221 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE BIBLE DEFENDED. 

Dust of the adamant — Heaven seen by its own light — Sun, criticised by candle-light — 
Satan, gyrations of— Farmer and the herbalist — Unbeliever, plain words to — Turks 
and the plague — Bullets on the eyelids — Blindman's mistake — The sorcerer — St. 
Paul's apology for want of success — Satanic escutcheon, influence — Sailors and the 
birds — Fault, questionable one 227 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

PLAIN SPOKEN. 

Too wise to learn — In the vortex of the pit — Balancings of the clouds — Infidel principles, 
the recoil — Reason, a Diotrephes. should follow faith — Reason, its limits — The 
basket of tares — False premises — Light enough for the humble— Chariot of fire, an 
experiment — The Galaxy, and Papist enthusiast 237 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

PLAIN DEALING. 

Addresses before sermon — Alps of thought — Ladder in the mists — Inhabitant of a star, 
first tidings of earth — Heaven— Hell, conscience there — A furious penitent — An- 
tidote to temptation 247 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 

True peace — Religion, its own evidence — Faith, hope, and love, their relation to inward 
religion — The Hudson skeptic — Lecturer testing nature for the truth of science — A 
promise of God tested — A great baptism 254 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 

Science has its difficulties — Christianity a science — Motives for intellectual humility — 
Chillingworth, his faith in the Bible — Divine foreknowledge — Contingencies, in- 
stances — An Arab teasing a Turk — The leaky ship — Storm on the Adriatic — Burn- 
ing the books 263 

CHAPTER XXXIX." 

HINTS FOR CERTAIN HEARERS. 
Satan's shadows — Bridge of shadows, the mistake — Dying infidel advised by his brother 
infidels — Dying in sin, with an aw.ikcned conscience — Death, the cup of trem- 



X CONTENTS. 

bling — Bible, reverence it — Myconius' dream — Jay on practical preaching — Re- 
vival provides pulpit material 270 

CHAPTER XL. 

THOUGHTS ABOUT BOOKS. 

Books, pleasing society — My Bible at the port of Rome — Mariners, an old maxim of— 
Without a compass — Sea-captain and his Bible, narrow escape — Adamic sentence 
— An impious remark — Eternal old age 276 

CHAPTER XLI. 

THE TRUTH OF GOD DEFENDED. 

Truth and Error — The Oak and the Willow — Pliable statesman — Trials, benefit of— 
Principle — Paper shot — Verities — Science, medical and theological — Sun, looking at 
— Oliver Cromwell — Apelles and the courtier — Holy Spirit, human habitation of— 
Sun and the mirrors — Sinning member punished — Sunshine and stubble 283 

CHAPTER XLII. 

IMPATIENCE. 

Two against one — Hard to please, or the preacher's difficulties — Clubbing down nature — 
Aristotle — Patience, as bread to salt, a cloak, helmet, and paring-knife — Satan hit — 
An emblem — Warm side of the hedge — The preacher tesced — Wealth and wicked- 
ness — The whirlwind prayer — Logic impassioned — Talent and genius, distinction, the 
gift of God — A great time, professors frightened 292 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

A STIR IN THE ENCAMPMENT OF UN RELIEF. 

Satan roused — Unbelief, its character— Reviewing, pulpit artillery — Spider webs — The 
hypochondriac — Merry ass — Sneering at creeds — The course of error — Calvary — 
Apostasy, fearful prospects — Truth, circuit to find — Democritus, saying of— Hell, a 
knowledge of the truth — Blindman's buff— Socrates, saying of— Bible, love in every 
page — Tears, prevalence of— Loud praying 300 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

A TALK WITH A SKEPTIC. 

Leaning upon a reed — Neutrality — Opinions, the offspring of passion— Prohibited book — 
Bible societies — The circular saw — Ship in port — Summerficld — The Cause that must 
live and prevail — Christ's kingdom, final triumph — The poor woman's song.... 311 

CHAPTER XLV. 

" BOLD IN THE PRESENCE OF FACTS." 

Preaching, its great end — Baxter's apology — Interest and passion — Dr. Griffen, on the 
final triumph of the Gospel — Truth defined, a beam of God — Truth, how it turns 
sin to crimson — Sun, his own evidence — Bible, obligation of Europe and America to 
— Bible for man, and man for it — Scriptures, cannot be broken — The scales, the 
Word of God weighed against heaven and earth — The two canopies — Sinner, his 
peril — Bible, a world without, anomaly in government — Epictetus on truth — Infidel 
positions — Golgotha 318 

CHAPTER XL VI. 

A PHILOSOPHICAL DEIST. 
Tully and Aristotle in Hades — Bible, neglect of— The lonely island — A clamorous dis- 
putant—God, Scripture view of, unequalled — Rocks, their testimony disputed — 
Deluge — Earth's strata — Bible, a world-wide challenge — Trio well met, their style 
— The man that lost his shadow 332 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

ON STYLE. 

A French word — Juggler, wit, and punster, defined — Style, good, advantages of— 
Abruptness, a necessity — Lash elegantly — Thought, just, to be beautiful — Writing 
natural way of— Heart, disordered fountain — Giardino's fiddle 340 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER XL VI II. 

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 

Phocion on persuasion — The ephemeron — Wearing out the hammers — Church, how she 
triumphs — Bible, antagonism to it, a marvel — Error on the advance — Signs of the 
times — Crisis farther into the future 344 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

TURNING THE BA1TLE TO THE GATE. 

Impatience, armor against — Bible, simplicity of its terms — Philosophical inquiries — Peb- 
bles in competition with diamonds — World's wonder — The soul's escort — " Two 
strings to our bow " — The catcher caught — Hunted down — Necromancer converted — 
The cock and vulture — Sinners, fearful prospects — God, not to be " outfaced "— 
Judgment scenes, no escape, no refuge — Preaching, purity of motive — Fearful peril 
— Time, remorseless 350 

CHAPTER L. 

THE BIBLE ON THE ASCENDANT. 

Bible, adaptation to mental caliber — The ambassador's boast — Ignorance of Scripture — 
Painstaking — Divers for pearl — The discouraged miner — "Drowned out" — Experi- 
ence — Setting his thoughts by the Bible — Prayed for — Cicero to his son — A Bible 
without difficulties, effects of— Directed to Christ — Bible, a beautiful tribute to- 
Divine inspiration — Helps to understand the Scriptures — Talking about religion — 
Bank detectors — Divine patience — The underground river 361 

CHAPTER LI. 

" LET US ALONE." 

Comment — An idiot in eternity — The Grecian's preference — Talents, principal and inter- 
est to be required — Insensible sinners— No contending with God — The river Tigris 
— Old convictions revived— Why in such baste to die ? — Sin a perilous element, fish 
in a river — " Small sins" 362 

CHAPTER LII. 

SEEING THINGS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. 

Pythagoras, maxim — Ingenious about nonsense — Lunacy — The saddest sight — Holy 
Spirit's aid — Providential guidance — A queen and the Bible— The garden of the 
Church— A sprig of the tree of life — Bible, why valued — King of Sicily — Bible, 
abiding by its precepts, etc. — An eloquent tribute — Characters addressed 378, 

CHAPTER LIII. 

THE IMPRECATION. 

The Magnet— Ocean experiences— Sermonizing — Compass, deviations from a point — 
Seamanship, eccentricity — Pulpit tactics — A sea song — Critics — Preaching, object 
of— St. Paul and the Cross — Horace, depravity — New convert, bones instead of 
milk — Jews, their isolated position — The Forum at Rome, Author's visit to— Arch 
of Titus — Reflections — The imprecation — The crimson stain in hell — French di- 
vine on eternal punishment — The Cross, a key, a harp, most terrible image in 
hell — Redemption and perdition, mutual illustrations — German preacher — Crim- 
son shower, effects of— The Cross, a lightning conductor — Its doctrines, effects of — 
Heathen deserts and northern icebergs under its influences 3S5 

CHAPTER LIV. 

THE ART OF PRINTING, AND THE BIBLE. 

The first book — Writing, ancient method — Providence — Ptolemy's library — Bible, its size, 
advantage of— A doubtful sentiment regarding books — Newspapers, heralds of Prov- 
idence — Books, advantages of reading — A troublesome debater — Novel-reader and 
the Bible 405 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER LV. 

THE BIBLE. 

Bible and Euclid— Virgil's storm— Shipwreck— Sailor and his Bible — Life preserved by 
the Bible — The two orphans — A touching story 411 

CHAPTER LVI. 

THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 

Dive or swim — Pearls — Sky and sea — EzekiePs scroll — Reading the Scriptures — Books, 
how to test them — Satanic influence — Sword of the Spirit — Universalist sophistry — 
Small shopkeepers — Error traced — Bigoted philosopher — Indisputable title — Moon 
a prejudice against — The great discovery — Virgil on controversy — Replies to the 
"conversazione" — Sincerity and simplicity — Bombast, what? — God, not duration 
nor space — False gods rather than none — Plutarch's testimony — Napoleon, " Who 
made all that ? " — Fenelon on the Christian heart — Creation, significance of the term 
— Pagan absurdities 417 

CHAPTER LVII. 

THE SCRIPTURES DEFENDED. 

Jesting with Scripture — Bible, an attempt to burn — The Word of God, its sweetness — 
Bible, our Eden — A dying mother and her Bible — Flowers of inspiration — Jay — 
Fords and gulfs — Repetitions — Luther and Latimer — Chart, tampering with — John 
Randolph and his candles — New discoveries — Mistakes — Reason — Locke, and the 
boasting footman 433 

CHAPTER LVIII. 

THE SOUL. 
Dead works — Going to perdition in silk — Pagans — The Athenian madman — Soul, proofs 
of its immortality, a pleasing view of — Pagan doubtfulness — Pliny — Scipio's dream 
— Geologist — The old map — Wise frogs — New ideas, mistake — Old poetry 442 

CHAPTER LIX. 

A BRUSH WITH AN INFIDEL. 

Devils in his head — Advice to the owls — Oriental literature — Ancient sages — Deist in a 
stage-coach, a contest — Cicero — An ancient confession — Pagans, Locke on their 
disabilities— Deist and his rushlight— Tertullian's defence— Pagans and the^krip- 
tures 451 

CHAPTER LX. 

REPLIES TO HEARERS. 
Religious gayety— Bubbles— " An honest skeptic "—Stating a fact— Servants, founda- 
tion for trust — Burleigh on trusting a skeptic — The two Johns— "The Wandering 
Jew" — Pagans, hope for— Bible, a handsome compliment to — "Book Notices," 
character of— Bible, a beautiful testimony— A great scholar's testimony for the 
Scriptures — Hale and Johnson, commending the Bible — Bible, the only objection to 
it 460 

CHAPTER LXI. 

THE BIBLE VINDICATED. 
The sun and our time-pieces— A ray of God's Word— Bible its own witness — Sun, argu- 
ment against — The mountain goatherd and his Bible— Topographical accuracy— A 
tottering faith — Suspecting the foundations — Revival of infidelity — Jumping with 
the world— The fatal leap— An old maxim— Conscience— A frightened debtor — Sa- 
tan's plans 47° 



ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 




CHAPTER I. 

EXPLANATIONS TO A HEARER. PULPIT ARCHERY. 

iREACHERS differ in their manner. This is as it 
2Jjkj> should be. To be true to nature, our style of 
preaching should, perhaps, be as dissimilar as 
are our foces. Mine, I suppose, is no exception. My manner 
differs not only from others somewhat, but is not generally in 
harmony with itself: thus the style of to-night's discourse 
(after making a few explanations) will differ, likely, from that 
of last night ; and that of to-morrow night, if spared, may 
be as unlike both as possible. Much depends upon circum- 
stances. The same may be said of my replies, and other remarks 
before taking my text from night to night, and of exhortations 
in prayer-meetings. Such variations and inequalities are un- 
avoidable. Hearers, not comprehending the causes, are per- 
plexed, and provoked to criticism. 

On my return to America in 1847, when ascending the 
Hudson River on board one of our steamers, I was looking 
over a volume of my Letters (which had been published in 
England), not having had an opportunity of doing so since it 



14 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

came from the press. An old farmer, noticing my name in 
print at the top of the page, said, " Caughey ? do you know 
him ? " " Yes, I have some acquaintance with him." " I 
heard him preach, a number of years ago, in the city of Hud- 
son." After making a few remarks, he concluded with, " But 
his style is not equal, sir ; his style is unequal." That is, I 
suppose, not uniform — different at different times, and, in his 
estimation, falling much below itself — which I thought a 
pretty fair criticism. The old gentleman did not recognize 
me, as I had spent a number of years in Europe. It was but 
fair I should remain incog., and we parted good friends. Now, 
I confess, this is saying a great deal about myself; but as 
explanations have been required, I hope the apparent egotism 
will be excused. 

But let us proceed. In ancient times archers had two sorts 
of bows: 1st, the long-bow, which required much strength of 
arm, and from it the arrow went forth in accordance with the 
strength of him who used it. 2d, the cross-bow ; from this 
the arrow r went with the same force, whether shot by a boy or 
a giant. Lord Bacon, I remember, uses this fact as an illus- 
tration of the difference between Assertion and Argument. 
Assertion he compared to an arrow from the long-bow, depend- 
ing mainly upon the strength of intellect, and conviction of its 
truth, in him who projects it ; but it requires more force. 
Argument he represented as an arrow from a cross-bow, which, 
if rightly directed, is of the -same force, whether shot by a 
common or a giant intellect. And yet the sage w r ould not 
have objected to a hint, that much depended upon the judg- 
ment in both classes of archers, whether the arrow went home 
directly to the mark or not. 



EXPLANATIONS TO A IIEARER. PULPIT ARCHERY. 15 

Well, sir, it is true, I deal sometimes in assertion, and 
sometimes in argument, but never in the former unless capable 
of being sustained by argument; but, taking it for granted 
that argument is uncalled for, I draw the long-bow, and let the 
arrow fly with the utmost of my strength. That such arrows 
reach the mark, now r and then, the cries of the wounded attest 
most convincingly. Thus the work is accomplished without 
argument, although I would not say that argument, like a 
John the Baptist, has not been the forerunner to prepare the 
way for the arrow of assertion. 

I use the word assertion in the sense of an undebatable and 
positive truth — that which commends itself at ouce to the com- 
mon sense of my hearers, as well as to their understanding and 
conscience. And many such truths there are in the doctrines 
and morals of religion, and in the lives of those who hear, you 
must be very well aware. My quiver is usually full of these 
during a revival, and therefore the long-bow of assertion is 
called most frequently into use, greatly to the annoyance of 
some that have no liking to come within the range of arrows 
from that bow. My quiver, I have said, is full of them, and, 
if not " polished shafts," they are " rough and ready," and 
sound withal — pointed with the steel of truth, and tipped with 
fire. And so, tossing my argumentative shield and cross-bow 
over my shoulder, and giving the fear of man to the winds, the 
arrows, one by one, are placed at the disposal of my long-bow ', 
and sent forth with all the force my strength, united with the 
strength the living God supplies at the moment, with a sure 
and certain faith of their going straight to the mark, piercing 
through joints and marrow, through soul and body, through 
the very thoughts of the heart, clear into the quivering conscience, 



16 * ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

and there sticking fast, till the hand of Jesus draws them forth, 
and heals the wounds of the weeping and agonizing sinner. 

The deepest humility accompanies all this, which, if not 
so evident amidst the blaze of zeal and faith, is immediately so 
on retiring to the footstool of God in secret. Diminished con- 
gregations for a time, after such a conflict, or professors siding 
some with those who have taken offence, deprecating " such 
extravagance and imprudence," are apt to bring a large in- 
crease of humiliation. If the conversion of many has beeu the 
result, it does not distress me ; but, if the results do not 
appear, then is my soul burdened indeed. Oh ! what seasons 
of conflict, and power, and victory I have had with my long- 
bow ! — ay, and of humiliation also. 

But the cross-boiv is sometimes brought into action, and, 
consequently, the quiver where the argumentative arrows are 
deposited. Argument is an arrow from this bow — a reason, or 
a series of reasons, in support of .a debatable or disputable 
point. 

A single proposition may require many of these arguments. 
A. proposition attributing some quality, negative or positive, to 
the subject on hand ; some affirmation requiring proof, when 
skeptics demand it or weak believers need it — this must not be 
withheld. I have seen some fine effects and lasting convic- 
tions resulting from the cross-hoio arrows. Even as in the case 
of that skeptic who said, " Cleverly done ! a fine fellow that ; 
made the best of his argument ; almost, but not quite, con- 
vinced; shall hear him again." Well, even that is worth 
something ; it may be the forerunner of better things. But 
determined opposers, who need the earthquake that awakened 
the Philippian jailor to arouse them, or a storm such as that 



EXPLANATIONS TO A HEAEEE. PULPIT AECHEEY. 17 

which vindicated the claims of God upon a Jonah, or red-hot 
thunderbolts, such as those to which Israel's God gave the 
flocks of the Egyptians, in days of old, as David tells us : 
these laugh at the whole affair of cross-bow argument, and set 
out from the house of God for a glass of grog, a jug of ale, and 
a game at cards, or something worse, and think no more of it. 
The long-bozo arrows are the best for these gentlemen. Do 
you understand me ? 

My aiming so directly at the mark, renders such spiritual 
archery so very intolerable. True, it is the manner of project- 
ing the arrows which seems to provoke criticism. But that is 
not the difficulty ; the provocation is that the arrow- is aimed 
at a mark, and actually hits it ! Were the humble archer but 
to aim at some imaginary character, sitting away upon some 
distant rock of Asia, or at the clouds, or higher yet, the stars, 
criticism would be amused and quiet, as a snake I once tried 
to charm by whistling to it, but the moment I stopped whist- 
ling, he eyed the cudgel in my hand, and darted out his fang 
like the forked lightning ! so I concluded to let him alone, if 
he would let me alone, and both of us went our ways ; and I 
thought if I could but treat sinners in this way, the carnal 
mind and myself might be on better terms ; at least the sever- 
ity of criticism might be avoided. But men have souls, and 
snakes have none ; therefore, neither they nor myself have 
much peace these days. 

A criticism one levelled at the writings of Plato, may not be 
amiss here : that Plato drew a good bow ; but, like Alcestes in 
Virgil, he aimed at the stars; and, therefore, though there was 
no want of strength or skill, the shot was thrown away. His 
arrow was indeed followed bv a track of dazzling radiance, but 



18 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

it struck nothing ! If my pulpit archery were of this sort, the 
criticisms of the party in question would be somewhat more 
lenient, I fancy ; but as I cannot be an Alcestes, let me be a 
Jonathan, of whose bow it was said it " turned not back" and 
of his father's sword, it "returned not empty. 11 (2 Sam. i. 22.) 
There are more arrows in the quiver, and they may rely upon 
it none of them shall be wasted. Amen ! 



CHAPTER II. 

. CHRISTIANS DEFENDED. 

J£$W^ ET " one who has had his eyes opened " make use of 
!$fN\. his ears for a few minutes, for the stranger trusts he 
f'/YWO^ nas something to say worth hearing, as you have seen 
some things worth seeiug among professors of religion ! 
A certain poet calls consistency a jewel. Would to God that 
all our people were adorned with it ! That would tell upon 
the world much more than the most eloquent preaching ! The 
loadstone for its attraction, and the diamond for its brlliancc. 
Christians should resemble both, as to their attractive qualities 
and the brilliancy of their graces. We lament that too many are 
not so. Nevertheless, there are some who possess these engaging 
properties. Your " inference " is a sad one, and dangerous too : 
"If Christians do so and so, why may not I?" A shrewd 
man proposed the matter thus : " If a professor cuts his finger, 
I may boldly cut my throat." You reject the application of the 
principle to your body, and yet seem to have no scruple in 
applying it to your soul ? Where is the consistency of that ? 

Imperfection and fallibility seem inseparable, in a greater 
or less degree, from all of us, in the present state. I speak 
this without intending any apology for sin or avoidable mis- 
takes. There are few books printed in which a critic might 
not find some material for an errata ; — few Christians, sir, even 



20 * ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

among those who are really such, of whom we may not say the 
same. In most stages of their Christian experience, on re- 
perusing the pages of the past, they would like to have an 
author's privilege — to use an idea of Dr. Franklin — to cor- 
rect, in a second edition of their life, the errors of the first? 
Those confessions and prayers recorded in the Book of Psalms, 
are as necessary in our dispensation as in the Jewish : " If 
thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who should 
stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be 
feared.'''' " Who can understand his errors ? cleanse thou me 
from secret faults.'''' " Keep back thy servant from presumptu- 
ous sins ; let them not have dominion over me : then shall I be 
upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." 
Angels in heaven are exempt from such confessions as these ; 
and so was unfallen Adam in Paradise. These might well 
refrain from that sentence in the prayer taught us by our Lord, 
" Forgive us our trespasses," but no Christian who inhabits a 
house of clay, and whose foundation is in the dust. 

You know little, I fear, about the nature of that " perfec- 
tion " which is taught in the New Testament, and which we 
preach ; that it is Christian perfection, and not angelic, nor 
Adamic; but the loving God with all the heart, and our 
neighbor as ourselves — so that we would as soon hurt 
ourselves, or hate ourselves, as willingly or knowingly do 
anything, or feel anything of the sort toward our neigh- 
bor. " Love workcth no ill to his neighbor" says Paul, 
and he immediately adds, " therefore love is the fulfilling 
of the law ; " ay, both toward God and toward man ! (Rom. 
xiii. 10.) This is the standard of the perfection taught in the 
New Testament. But the perfection of love does not necessa- 



CHRISTIANS DEFENDED. 21 

rily imply or include perfection in judgment, or in memory ; 
therefore we are liable to make many mistakes, and to betray 
to others and to ourselves many infirmities — either involun- 
tary on our part, or arising from the imperfect medium through 
which we see and judge of those objects which require our 
action. All our people who are well instructed upon this doc- 
trine, would as soon deny that they need the merits of Christ 
every moment, as that there is not a daily necessity of their 
praying, " Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that 
trespass against us." That they may fall away from this 
standard of Christian perfection, they are also aware ; and that 
they have need to pray that their Heavenly Father leave them 
not in temptation, else the purest heart among them would 
become corrupted, and the fairest character tarnished. 

This view of Christians should soften your criticisms. The 
sun himself, sir, is not without his spots, nor the moon. The 
highest and fairest stars, too, have their twinklings. I am no 
apologist for Christ-scandalizing and religion-dishonoring pro- 
fessors. God forbid ! But the most perfect believers are not 
without their faults ; not through a corrupt heart, or wilful 
disposition to do wrong, but through fallibility of judgment, or 
defect of memory, or some physical infirmity or other. So far 
from asserting absolute perfection, either as to the impossibility 
of falling, or his ever arriving at a point beyond which he can 
never rise to a higher state of perfection, I rather believe with 
a shrewd brother, that " he who foots it best to-day, may be 
found all along to-morrow ! " — and with an excellent divine in 
London, that the most perfect human being in this world, is 
nothing more than an unfinished sketch of humanity ; a crea- 
ture full of anticipations and pre-assurances of future devclop- 

1* 



22 ARROWS FROM MY QUIYER. 

ment and eternal perfection. These views have their uses 
among Christians ; as they preserve us from glorying in men. 
''and from trusting in ourselves. 

Ah ! my friend, when you show me a beauty that will not 
fade, I will show you a Christian that cannot fall ! When you 
find me a flower that cannot wither, or a light that cannot be 
eclipsed or extinguished, or a ship that cannot be wrecked, or a 
tree which the tempest may not overturn — then may I find you 
a Christian not liable to such a catastrophe. 

Perhaps, your principles may prevent you, or your preju- 
dices, from understanding or appreciating my remarks. You 
have likely studied certain professors more than you have their 
Bible; apostasy more than theology; their system of practice 
more than their system of faith ; their faults more than their 
temptations, and the disadvantages of their position, or edu- 
cation, or constitutional temperament. To give some poor 
Christians " fair play," it is necessary you should study these \ 
But, ah ! who but God can do that perfectly ? Who but God 
knows how many of these, though often worsted in a skirmish, 
do win the main battle ? Who but God knows how many of 
those who keel the rocks and shoals, or are the sport of whirl- 
pools and breakers, iu some part of their voyage, do enter the 
heavenly port at last in safety? I often rejoice at the thought 
that it is God himself who is to judge us at last, for it is He and 
He alone who can, who knows al] the circumstances of the case. 
I believe with Burns, and he wrote feelingly, no doubt : 

" Who made the heart, 'tis He alone 
Decidedly can try us ; 
He knows each chord — its various tone, 
Each spring, its various bias : 



CHRISTIANS DEFENDED. 23 

Then at the balance let's be mute, 

"We never can adjust it ; 
"What's done we partly may compute, 

But know not what's resisted." 

Poor human nature ! — it is seldom at a stay ! And the 
light of God's truth and love in the soul is seen to disadvan- 
tage, in consequence of the medium through which it slimes, 
like some revolving lights among the light-houses on the sea- 
coast, some presenting a dark side alternately with a bright 'side ; 
others, a compartment redder than Mars ! The glass through 
which the light shines is the cause; but whether blank or 
change of color, he who keeps the light-house knows the fault 
is not in the light within, but in that which prevents, or in the 
medium through which it beams forth. It would betray much 
ignorance or inattention on board ship, to hear one declaring 
the light was extinguished in the light-house, or that it was all 
a glaring red, without thinking worth while to observe the 
effect of a single revolution ! Poor Christians ! Jesus tells 
them, " Let your light so shine before men, that they seeing your 
good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven.'''' Yet, 
alas ! the effects of the fall are such, we too frequently resemble 
these revolving lights ! The medium through which the light 
shines, dimmed, or discolored by temptations, and the cares of 
this world, often appears to great disadvantage ; especially to 
such as are not particularly interested to see their bright side ! 
But, Israel's keeper never slumbers, nor sleeps — he, and he 
only, can decide upon the nature of the light within. " Let 
your light so shine," said Jesus ; admitting that there might be 
true light in the soul, and shining withal, yet not in such a 
manner, or through such a medium, as to bring glory to their 



24 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Heavenly Father, or credit to their religion or to their own 
character. Pity and help us, O most gracious Lord God ! 
thou and thou only knowest all the evil and the good that is iu 
us : 

"Jesus I thou knowest my feebleness, 

My faults are not concealed from thee ; 
To thee and thy dear wounds I flee ! " 

The Church is compared to the moon in the Scripture ; and 
like the moon, though she has her light from " the Sun of 
Righteousness" she has her changes. Individual Christians 
are partakers of similar variations, on some parts of their orbs, 
especially to the eyes of persons watching them from different 
positions, and who. are as little versed in the mysteries of 
Christian experience, as they are, possibly, in the mysteries of 
astronomy ! The stars in the sky, had they sense, could judge 
better of the moon than the wisest astronomers, yet the great 
Creator knows all. Believers can judge better of believers, 
revolving in orbits nearer to their own, than carnal men, whose 
centre of gravitation is hell. Angels in heaven, and the 
guardian angels of the weakest and most imperfect of God's 
children, know more of them than either of these classes ; but 
this Father in heaven can judge of them better than men or 
angels, or devils ! Thanks be unto God for this consolation ! 
A pious man who afterward passed away into the heavens, 
speaking of some providences, and their aspect toward the chil- 
dren of God, made a singular comparison, which I thought 
applied beautifully to Christians themselves : he compared 
them to the moon, which has at all times as much light as in 
the full ; but a great part of the bright side is turned to hea- 
ven, and the lesser side to the earth ! Can my hearer make 



CHRISTIANS DEFENDED. 25 

the application, and learn to exercise a little more charity, and 
decide with more modesty regarding Christians? 

Grace appears to greater advantage in some than in others. 
Thus it happens, in the estimation of us poor mortals, which 
cannot see the heart, that some whom we imagine have much, 
enjoy but little, and those to whom we impute but little grace, 
have much ; and that in consequence of some peculiarity of 
habit, or manner. One is naturally amiable, and a little of the 
love of God will suffice to preserve his sweetness of disposition 
under circumstances of considerable trial. Whereas, in another 
of a different disposition, a similar degree of love would not 
suffice in the hour of temptation ; so it is hard to judge right- 
eously of Christians. A shrewd observer hit upon the follow- 
ing method of illustration, or comparison : — The grace of God 
in one class, is as water in a long, narrow-mouthed glass, which 
seems to be a great deal, when ten times, yea, twenty times as 
much in a large cistern, is hardly discernible ! A little sugar 
will serve well enough for sweet wines, but much more is requi- 
site to sweeten that wine that is sharp and harsh ! 

A remark of a German preacher occurs to me. It was to 
this effect, that in some " the new man " does not attain to such 
an unlimited superiority over the old, but that under the press- 
ure of seductive and darkening influences, he may again burst 
his fetters, and manifest his depravity before God and man. 
The continuation of divine influence is constantly necessary, 
especially in such as are in an imperfect state of grace, for the 
overcoming and restraining the remaining life of the old nature. 
Indeed, in the highest state of grace, divine influence and con- 
tinual watchfulness are necessary. 

As just hinted, some Christians require much more grace 



20 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

and help from God than others, owing to some constitutional 
infirmity or circumstance ; yet such may be much cared for, 
and loved of God. It was said of a pious man, by one who 
knew him well, "He has grace enough for ten men, but scarce 
enough for himself, owing to the natural badness of his tem- 
per ! " Indeed, he often, it is said, bewailed his own faults ; 
once to a particular friend, he observed, " My nature is so cross 
and crooked, that if God had not given me grace, none would 
have been able to live one day quietly with me." Yet, grace 
so triumphed over that man's nature, that I believe nobody 
doubted his piety. At last, the Lord called him home to him- 
self, who knew him better than any of his most charitable 
friends ; and I doubt not, said " Well done ! " Blessed be God 
for the blood and righteousness of Christ, and grace, plenteous 
grace in him to cover all our sins ! 



What you state concerning those cases of duplicity, and 
that deplorable instance of backsliding, is humiliating indeed 
to the friends of Zion. God is judge. " Let him that thinketh 
he standeth, take heed lest he fall,'" is St, Paul's caution. But 
for the grace of God, thus might it be with the best of his 
people. We behold only the results of unfaithfulness ; the 
strength of the temptation, and all the circumstances, are known 
to the Mediator between God and men. Indeed, he could not 
be such unless it were so. This may account for the fact that 
such are spared what their fellow-creature?, sinful as well as 
they, judge them worthy of— if not of hell, yet of the severest 
judgments from heaven. 

That certain circles take occasion to run down religion and 



CHRISTIANS DEFENDED. 27 

all its professors, on their account, is what might be expected. 
I remember some remarks of Dr. Chalmers on this very subject. 
I fcave not his works at hand, but they differ little from the 
following: 

" A few instances of hypocrisy among the more serious of 
the professors of our faith, serve to rivet the impression among 
sinners, and give it perpetuity in the world, that all its votaries 
are hypocrites. One single example of sanctimonious duplicity 
will suffice* in the judgment of many, to cover the whole of 
vital and orthodox Christianity with disgrace. The report of it 
will be borne in triumph amongst the companies of the irreli- 
gious. The man who pays no homage to Sabbaths, or to sacra- 
ments, will be contrasted in the open, liberal, manly style of 
all his transactions, with the low cunning of this drivelling 
Methodistical pretender. And the loud laugh of a multitude 
of scorners will give force and swell to this public outcry 
against the whole character of the sainthood." 

What a verification have we had of late ! Satan has more 
to fear for his kingdom at present, than Jesus Christ ; and this 
is an evidence of it. 



CHAPTER III. 

CHRISTIANS UNSAFE TO MEDDLE WITH THEM. 

)' dt'i is strange that such a one as 'should set 

;i; A himself up as a critic on Christian morals ; and talk 
M£$ as he has done against men whose moral character 
is unimpeachable ; with whom his own character can no 
more be brought into comparison, than Satan with an angel. 
This is severe, aud here I pause ; and yet I feel inclined to 
copy verbatim something far severer from another pen : 

" For you to become a public censurer, it is as if the 
darkest nook in hell should find fault with the moon, that great 
light of heaven, for those little spots in her face ; whereas she is 
a fair and goodly creature : as if the most loathsome dunghill 
should challenge the fairest garden for unsavoriness, because 
there is here and there a weed amidst a variety of other fra- 
grant flowers : as if a worthless lump of dross should censure an 
angel of gold for want of a grain or two in weight. A lump of 
sin and dust, damnation and hell, loads with censorious lies that 
happy soul which, in the fountain of Christ's meritorious 
blood, is made far whiter than the snow in Salmon, and fairer 
than the wool of the sheep coming up from the washing, though 
some spots and stains of infirmities may cleave unto it, while it 
yelPdwells in a house of flesh and tabernacle of clay." This 
character I very willingly dismiss. Violent diseases require 



CHRISTIANS UNSAFE TO MEDDLE WITH THEM. 29 

violent remedies, and this may be one of them ! If the devil 
rages too loudly in him, the poor sinner may take the alarm, 
and he may lose him forever ! Mercy knows no stopping-place 
on this side of hell, in the descending scale of human depravity, 
if repentance and faith are only allowed to show themselves in 
the soul ! 

There are others, with whom I desire to reason before 
the Lord. Have you never read the warning given by our 
Lord : " Judge not, that ye be not judged" ? Especially forbear 
to judge God's people. Beware how you speak of them. 
Their Master hears you. To him they stand or fall. If your 
treatment of them arises from your want of love to Him, yoa 
may expect a rebuke; some experience this to their sorrow. 
Besides, you may, ere this, have owed your life to the prayers 
of some of them. Even now they may, for aught you know, be 
a screen between you and the sword of divine justice. Zoar 
owed its preservation to Lot, on thve day that Sodom received 
its doom. Some of you who hear me this hour, have been 
most likely preserved from death and hell by a similar cause. 
He looks upon his own saints, takes pleasure in them, hears 
their prayers, and spares you! Were such removed, God 
might speedily remove you. Have you never read of the stag 
that was pursued by the hunters, and concealed himself midst 
the branches of a thicket ? But, foolish creature, he commenced 
browsing on the foliage which protected him from the eyes of 
his pursuers, and on being discovered, he perished. In like 
manner, God's people, imperfect though they be, are as a 
screen to you, as the boughs of that thicket to the stag ! And 
yet, would you bite and devour them ? Beware how you 
even grieve or tease them ? They may cry unto God to take 



30 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

you in hand. And, though they would by no means pray God 
to dispatch you out of the way into hell, nor even to shorten 
your days ; yet, they might pray in faith for God to grant them 
deliverance from their sorrow, and the answer to their prayer 
might bring a bitter affliction upon you. Better not meddle 
with them. " Let the potsherds of the earth strive with the pots- 
herds of the earth : " but beware how you use God's jewels. 
(Malachi iii. 17.) God himself declares, he that touches them, 
touches the apple of his eye. (Zech. ii. 8.) And that he 
keeps them as the apple of his eye. (Deut. xxxii. 10.) If 
you can conceive how tender you are of your eye, and how 
careful of the safety of your eyesight, you may judge of the 
care and protection he affords his people ; how tender he is 
of their welfare, and how quickly he feels any injury done 
them. 

A few mornings since, I was reading that remarkable cau- 
tion in Exodus (xxiii. 22-24), given by the Lord God Himself, 
concerning the widow or fatherless child, not to afflict them : 
" If thou afflict them in any vnse, and they cry at all unto me, I 
will surely hear their cry ; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I 
will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, 
and your children fatherless.' 1 '' A striking passage, is it not ? 
The secret, likely, of many a desolate household, in the present 
day. Is God so ready to attend to the cry of such, and will 
he not hear the cries of his own children, if afflicted by those 
who fear not God ? Mary, Queen of Scots, declared that she 
feared the fastings and prayers of John Knox and his dis- 
ciples more than an army of twenty thousand men ! 

In conclusion : suppose much of what you insinuate against 
some be true, it is far from being a " triumphant argument " 



CHRISTIANS UNSAFE TO MEDDLE WITH THEM. 31 

against Christianity. A young man, indeed, travelling in a 
stage-coach, was weak enough to think so, and scoffed at the 
system bitterly, because of the misconduct of some of its pro- 
fessors. One of the company inquired of him whether he had 
ever known an uproar made because an infidel went astray 
from the paths of morality. No, he admitted, he had uot. 
The other immediately asked him if he did not see that in 
making an ado about the unfaithfulness of professed Christians, 
he was admitting before that company that Christianity is 
a holy religion, by expecting its professors to be holy ; and 
also, that by his very objection he was actually paying it the 
highest compliment in his power. The young man was mute, 
and the company had a theme for silent reflection. This is all 
I have time to say at present. 



CHAPTER IV. 



REVIVAL PHENOMENA. 



j'^||f ND was not Elijah, the prophet of God, called a 
\4^w troubler of Israel ? And did not the Roman Catho- 



lics call Luther " the Trumpet of Rebellion " ? He 
said well who insisted it was not the Gospel, but men's 
corruptions, that bred trouble, just as the foulness of the 
stomach causes sea-sickness. I know the Gospel of Christ is 
heaving and tossing this community as the sea does a ship and 
her passengers ; and that while some are sick enough, and 
care not if they were thrown overboard, others are well and 
enjoy if mightily ! 

" Morn on the waters ! — and purple and bright 
Bursts on the billows the flushing of light 1 
O'er the glad waves, like a child of the sun, 
See the tall vessel goes gallantly on : 
Full to the breeze she unbosoms her sail, 
And her pennant streams onward, like hope, in the gale I 
The winds come around her in murmur and song, 
And the surges rejoice as they bear her along ! 
Upward she points to the golden-edged clouds, 
And the sailor sings gayly aloft in the shrouds ! 
Onward she glides, amid ripple and spray. 
Over the waiers— away, and away. 
Bright as the visions of youth ere they part, 
Passing away, like a dream of the heart 1 



TO , REVIVAL PHENOMENA. 33 

"Who, — as the beautiful pageant sweeps by, 
Music around her. and sunshine on high, — 
Pauses to think, amid glitter and glow, 
Oh ! there are hearts that are breaking below I 
All gladness and glory as our ship onward flies, 
Yet chartered by sorrow, and freighted with sighs 1 " 

So it fares on board The Old Ship of Zion, at the present 
time ! Never a fairer breeze for the port of Glory than now ! 
But some are sick, and blame this Gospel breeze, and the other 
elements of its power. Gladness and glory on deck, sir, while 
some poor hearts are breaking below ! To them it seems as if 
Sorrow has chartered the ship, and they have supplied the 
freight! — "freighted with sighs, andwithering thoughts," — as 
if drifting toward a desolate shore, where not a friend stands 
waiting to greet them ! Yet they are on board, poor things ! 
and cannot help themselves. There are songs aloft in the 
shrouds, and cheerful voices on deck ; and our ship, like a child 
of the sea and sun, is pressing on gallantly, over the billows 
and over the waves ! Let those below cheer up ! Jesus, the 
great Physician, is on board ! The spiritual sea-sickness soon 
gives way under his treatment ! The inner man is all wrong, 
and at war with these Gospel elements. Thus it is with your- 
self as well as many others. Call for the great Physician, sir ! 
Call for the great Physician ! 

We have much to praise God for, but nothing in which we 
glory, save in our Lord Jesus Christ, and his redeeming and sav- 
ing power. Were we novices, we might be lifted up with pride, 
and thus fall into the condemnation of the devil. (1 Tim. iii. 6.) 
To prevent this, our God has only to allow Satan a longer chain, 
and there will arise Tobiahs, and Sanballats, and Geshems 



34 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

enough to keep us humble ; or spiritual conflicts to lay us low, 
and give us other matters to think of than vainglory. What 
I am about to say may he as much a mystery to you as the 
rest of it : it is the life of faith to work for God, and give him 
all the glory back again, when any good has been accomplished. 
This is one of its divine and most noble excellencies ; — neither 
to tact nor talent, nor to prayer nor labor, nor to. zeal nor 
holiness, not even to the faith that removes mountains, be glory, 
but overcoming " through the blood of the Lamb, all glory be 
unto the Lamb, and to him that sitteth upon the throne for 
ever and ever ! Amen ! " This is the soul's centre, — its rest, — 
its heaven here below. 




CHAPTER V. 

TO AN OBSERVER A GREAT QUICKENING. 

.J HERE is a marvellous quickening among the people, 
I admit ; and the effects are marvellous to some. But 
w ^ P you and they are only beholding illustrated a striking 
remark of a Scotch preacher, that " He who shall raise the dead 
in church-yards, can wake dead in churches ! " The suddenness 
of this awakening, and at a time when there was the least like- 
lihood of any such thing, and this shaking among various classes, 
have affected some as disagreeably, it would seem, as would 
have this morning's dawn, had it rushed into noonday with 
the force and suddenness of an explosion ! Have they forgot- 
ten that it is written, " For he will finish the work, and cut it 
short in righteousness : because a short work ivill the Lord make 
upon the earth"? (Rom. ix. 28.) We may say of a revival 
among a people, what one said of sanctification in a single 
soul : it may be " gradual in preparation, but instantaneous in 
accomplishment." Some revivals resemble rivers running un- 
derground, unknown to everybody, till they discover them- 
selves. Most revivals of God's work, I have thought, begin in 
this secret way. It is no wonder that worldly-minded persons 
know not what to make of such sudden manifestations. But is 



Ob ARROWS FROM MY QLTYER. 

it not marvellous also, that those " good people " of whom you 
speak cannot discover the tokens of the Lord's wisdom and 
power, and that they cry not out with the disciples of old, on 
seeing a multitude of fishes in the net, "It is the Lord" f Or 
that they find it so difficult to allow that God may work just 
where, and when, and how he pleases ! 

2. My habit of going to the point at once, direct, when 
preaching, and not by circles, under cover of much verbiage 
and art, may constitute, perhaps, the difference. But I mis- 
take the spirit of the age, if the generality of hearers dislike 
it; especially those who desire to know the truth, the whole 
truth, as it is. Those who prefer comfort to safety, and have 
no w T ish to see the worst of their case, prefer a different style ; 
nor need one marvel at that. But God knows what is best for 
them and for the people ; and usually provides it, without ask- 
ing their leave. The spirit of the age, it has seemed to me, 
requires something of the kind. We live in an irregular and 
impetuous age, and it needs some such sort of preaching to 
cope with it. God knows I have much to humble me as it 
regards the imperfection of my style, both in writing and 
speaking. In some degree I am conscious of it, and humbled 
on that and some other accounts, more than I can express. 
But effects do sometimes comfort, and lift me up out of oppress- 
ive humiliation. I wish, and often try to do better, to avoid 
abruptness, and cultivate a smoother and less rapid style of 
delivery. But deep convictions of truth, and the value and 
peril of souls, w 7 ith intense emotions, seize and carry me head- 
long into the subject; and it is not till after all is over, that 
Prudence overhauls me : if the effects happen to be such as 
the doctrine would seem to warrant, I am let off" without the 



A GEE AT QUICKENING. 37 

loss of part of my night's rest. This is saying more than I 
intended ; and is, perhaps, part and parcel of my other faults. 
I was cheered the other day with the remark of one regarding 
the stately and elegant style of Gibbon the historian, — 
" keeping step elegantly and in perfect time," — that a break in 
the cadence would be the greatest relief, and a false quantity 
endear the historian more than the most rigid correctness in 
the world ! for, I thought, maybe, after all, something of this 
in my preaching may serve as good a purpose, through the 
divine blessing, as the more smooth and polished style which 
graces much of the eloquence of our times ! 

3. Nevertheless, it is sweet to reflect that, whether a Paul 
may plant, or an Apollos water, or a Boanerges thunder, or 
a Jonathan shoot his arrow, or a Joash smite the ground with 
a handful of arrows, contrary to all the rules and uses of arch- 
ery, it is God who giveth the increase. Peter's hook and 
Peter's nets both succeeded, when let down as Christ com- 
manded. The work is ours to do, but the deed is God's, else 
all our work is vain. Bede preaching to a heap of stones, and 
we to a congregation of sinners, without divine help, have 
equal prospect of success. " I may teach, and you hear, but 
God must do the deed when all is done," said a faithful 
preacher, centuries ago. Aye, the same Lord that opened the 
heart of a Lydia under the preaching of Paul, and the heart of 
a jailor by the shocks of an earthquake. 

4. Ezekiel, the prophet, is an example of directness, when 
prophesying to " the valley of dry bones" Had " some of our 
judicious hearers " been present just then, with as little faith in 
supernatural influence as they seem to have just now, most 
likely they would have pronounced him also " somewhat too 



38 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

eccentric for good taste, when he stood and cried, " ye dry 
bones, hear the word of the Lord." Bnt he would not have 
varied his mode of address on their account : " So I prophesied 
as I was commanded.' 1 '' The secret of the effects produced we 
find in that one short sentence. The result was " a noise, and 
behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone." 
(Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10.) Read the whole. Mark the simple 
directness and the faith of this man of God. Twice he tells us, 
in those ten verses, " So I prophesied as he commanded me." 
And the effects were in accordance — a direct response from the 
bones — a stirring, and a shaking, and a sounding, and a com- 
ing together, bone to his bone. And, behold, those hitherto 
dry and dead bones were instinct with the breath of life, 
clothed with flesh and skin, " and stood up upon their feet an 
exceeding great army." He that hath an ear to hear, let him 
hear ! Let the messenger of Jesus Christ u declare the whole 
counsel of God " unto the people, in the manner, and with the 
power, in which he wills it should be declared, and may not 
similar effects be witnessed among and upon hitherto dead 
sinners ? 

Look around you, my friend, and what do you behold ? 
The appeal originates not from pride or vanity, but for the 
glory of God. Look around you. You know in what state 
these sinners were a few months since, and you see, in some 
degree, the change that has been effected in them. Sinners, 
hitherto possessed of torpid consciences, with faculties dis- 
jointed, and dispersed from life, from God and godliness, and 
sepulchred in flesh, sin, and unbelief! Behold the change. 
Think of how it was effected. An impulse, mysterious as that 
which stirred the valley of dry bones under the prophet's 



A GEEAT QUICKENED. 39 

voice, lias set these dead people in motion— the vivifying 
energy of the Spirit of God. That was the mysterious im- 
pulse. Behold the effects. If not, as yet, " an exceeding great 
army" yet, were I to ask them to stand on their feet, you 
would see arise around you a very respectable battalion, lately 
formed, and belonging to the grand army of Emmanuel. 

5. The work of this spiritual resurrection, and regeneration, 
and enrolment is still going on. A "breath" is breathing 
upon these slain, and is abroad over this great valley of dry 
bones, more effectual than " the four winds of the earth ; " and 
the arm of our God is not shortened, that it cannot save. Day 
after day, and night after night, sinners are rising from among 
the dead. (Ephes. v. 14.) His voice, in the living word, 
appears as effectual now in awakening such as it shall be on' 
that day when " The Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump 
of God" reverberating over the startled dead, " Arise ye dead 
and come to judgment" Let us all bow in reverence before 
Him who sitteth upon the throne, and before the Lamb of 
God, who has taken away our sins. 

"He by himself hath sworn : 
I ou his oath depend : 
I shall, on eagle wings upborne, 
To heaven ascend : 
I shall behold his face ; 
I shall his power adore, 
And sing the wonders of his grace 
For evermore 1 " 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE OPPOSITION J OR, HINTS TO " AN OPPOSITIONIST.' 



} aSET was said of one of the emperors of Rome that he 
was careful of what was done by him, but careless of 
*fjkt$b what was said of him — a good rule for a preacher. 
" Do well and bear ill is written upon heaven's gates," said 
Bradford the martyr. Oh ! that God may write the same 
on the gates of my heart or memory ! for, what with the threat- 
ening aspects of things in Conference* and fretfulness in some 
classes of hearers, one needs such a continual motto before the 
eyes, or on the memory, and on the heart. 

2. It is good, however, sometimes to know the opinions of 
an opposition, as well as those of friends. " A stone in the 
other pocket " was, perhaps, the next best thing for the coat 

that sat awry on the back of Johnny D . Had the coat 

been well put on, or better made, the temptation to deposit 
the stone might have been absent from the naughty ones, un- 
less the fault lay in Johnny's anatomical structure. If the 
fault lay only in the eye of the depositor, to the eyes of others 
there would have been but little or no difference, probably, in 
the appearance of tbe coat, but somewhat to Johnny in the 
sense of weight, though it weighed nothing at all in his judg- 
ment. But let that pass. Politian of old said some flattered 

* Tlie British Weslevan Conference. 



THE OPPOSITION. 41 

him, and others slandered him; but he thought neither the 
better nor the worse of himself for that, no more than he 
thought himself taller or lower beeause his shadow was longer 
in the morning and shorter at noon. I sometimes think, also, 
of the opinion of a good man, now in eternity, regarding what 
he considered a good foundation for true happiness — to stand 
acquitted by oneself in private, in public by others, and in both 
by God. Aye ; but if one can secure the first and third of 
these requisites, the absence of the second need not materially 
affect one's happiness : but, alas ! the presence of the second, 
without the other two, would be a slender foundation for solid 
happiness. Burns said well : 

" If happiness ha'e not her seat 

And centre in the breast, 
We may be wise, or rich, or great, 

But never can be blest : 
Xae treasures nor pleasures 

Could make us happy lang ; 
The heart aye's the part aye 

That makes us right or wrang ! " 

3. That experience of Paul — oh ! that I felt it more deeply 
than I do ! — " Who is weak, and I am not ivealc ? who is 
offended, and I burn not ? " — burn not with holy zeal to 
recover him, and to confirm him in the truth. "What tender- 
ness and sympathy ! " It goes as much against the heart of a 
good minister as against the hair of his people, if he say or do 
anything to their grief," said a great and good divine of olden 
times. " It is no pleasure to him to fling daggers, to speak 
millstones, to preach damnation;" yet he thought Paul's in- 



42 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

junction should press heavily upon the conscience of every 
minister: " The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, sloio 
bellies (a quotation from one of themselves) ; wherefore re- 
buke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." The 
rebukes were to have a sharp edge, and a piercing point. In 
doing this, there is danger of hurting the weak ; for Satan is 
ever ready to turn edge or point against the weak and tender 
of conscience, who, though unfaithful, yet are not worthy of 
rebukes so severe and cutting. It is said of Zuingle, that usu- 
ally, after preaching a terrifying sermon, he would close the 
book, saying, Bone vir, hoc nihil ad te I — " Thou good man, I 
mean not thee ! " Richard Baxter, on like occasions, wished 
certain weak Christians at home, rather than have them pres- 
ent, to apply, " as was their wont," alarming truths to them- 
selves which properly belonged to very different characters in 
his congregation. Another cautioned himself and others that 
Christ's loeaklings must be handled with all tenderness. 

4. Satan owes a grudge to such as have lately deserted his 
standard to become the children of God. Gladly would he 
raise against them such a whirlwind as destroyed the children 
of Job, were it not, perhaps, for sending them too soon to 
heaven, and thus destroy his own hopes of yet dragging them 
down to hell, or that Jesus forbids him to touch a skin, or a 
bone, or a life of them. But when truth, like a storm, sweeps 
over a congregation, such as we had the other night, it excites 
the devil wonderfully, and, were he allowed, I doubt not he 
would roar like a lion against the flock of Jesus Christ. I 
have read the remark somewhere that, in those countries where 
wild beasts are, the lion is always loudest in a storm ; that his 
roar never sounds so loud and terrible as in the pauses of the 



THE OPPOSITION. 43 

thunder; and that, when the lightning flashes brightest, the 
flashes of his crnel eye are proportionably terrible. 

5. It is so with the old lion of hell, " that goeth about,'' 1 as 
St. Peter declares, "seeking whom he may devour." In the 
dark, and in the gloomy day, he roars against the children of 
God, and especially in the pauses of truth's thunder, when 
weak and tried ones have encompassed my paths for advice — 
have made my place of solitude vocal with their sobs and 
groans, and inquiries, "What shall I do? what shall become 
of me ? how shall I escape ? " — when truth, like a hurricane, 
rages through the devil's forests, shaking, rending, uprooting, 
and many an " oak of Bashan " is laid low. Ay, and when M the 
trees of righteousness, trees of the Lord's right hand planting" 
are shaken also, think you that the old lion of perdition roars 
not — not, indeed, audibly, but sensibly — to the spiritual ear 
of many a soul, as ever a lion roared in the ear of the human 
body ? " Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey ? " 
inquires the prophet Amos. Will Satan go round about as a 
roaring lion when there is nothing to devour ? 



CHAPTER VII. 

REVIVAL : TRUTH AND ITS EFFECTS. 

^^ferE may say of a revival preacher, what one said of 
c : Y godliness : he has many troubles, and many helps 
,2*P5f against trouble. If certain young believers have so 
soon cast away their confidence, through these terrible ap- 
peals to the sinful, it does not prove, in the present instances, 
" the falsity of their late 2>rofessions" but their honesty and sin- 
cerity of purpose, rather; and that they had forgotten their 
" shield of faith." The arrows of truth, as well as " the fiery 
darts of the wicked one" must sometimes be received on that 
shield, or they may wound the soul. 

The Law of God is a terrible power. It can neither belie 
nor deceive, for it is a picture of the Divine mind, and a mirror 
of his perfections. It will not allow itself to be misunderstood, 
nor let the hearer escape ; as one has feelingly observed : " The 
lightning that strikes us, flashes upon us at first only from one 
of the ten commandments. We think to save ourselves in the 
other nine, and we cast ourselves, as into a safe fortress, into 
the First command, ' Thou shalt have no other gods before 
me. 1 There the spirit pursues and enlightens, as to the nature, 
depth, and spirituality of this command. Being questioned 
there, we turn our back on that, and flee to the Sixth ; but the 
recollection of ill-tempers toward others makes a breach there. 



REVIVAL : TRUTH AST) ITS EFFECTS. 4.5 

Wc hasten to the Ninth, but have to fly from that, under 
charge of falsehood, deception, dissembling, or flattery. Con- 
science has hardly finished its speech, till we fly from that also. 
Xo rest can we find in the Seventh command ; but conscience 
retrospects the thoughts, and the desires, and inclinations of 
the heart ; and we flee from that command as from a fire that 
consumes us. The Fifth affords no security, for the sin of 
covetousness approaches to arrest us. In the Eighth, the accu- 
sations of father and mother. The Tenth strips us of every 
thing; terminating the whole process by a general condemna- 
tion. Miserable man that I am ! I am already condemned, 
and accursed, lost ! ' Thou art the man ! ' resounds on every 
side, and it seems as if the very walls, and joists, and beams 
cry out the same. A thousand reminiscences of past trans- 
gressions crowd around like avenging spirits exclaiming, ' Thou 
shalt surely die!'' Dreams are haunted by those dreadful 
words ; they seem written on the stars of heaven, and on each 
day as it passes. The sentence is acknowledged to be just. 
A consciousness of being the cause of Christ's death adds to 
the guilt. In the horror and darkness of self-condemnation, 
faith catches a glimpse of the cross ; and by a light of its own, 
the mystery is explained. It offers a new relation, which is 
embraced. The burden is removed; the darkness all gone, 
condemnation gone, and sunshine and gladness entirely fill the 
soul." There is law and gospel for you. 

Let me repeat, the Law of God is a terrible power ! " The 
law worheth wrath ! " saith the apostle. It has not only a fiery 
splendor which alarms the conscience, but fiery serpents, so to 
speak, which come hissing out of it ; and when they sting the 
conscience, faith in an exalted Saviour can alone secure and apply 



46 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

the remedy : for neither man nor angel is able to comfort. 
Marvel not, if these young converts are thus; seeing that 
experienced Christians found it hard to avoid them. The 
Law renders the Gospel precious, and teaches us to prize Jesus. 
These wounded ones, I have been thinking, know something 
about " looking unto Jesus ; " though I sadly fear that Christ 
was not sufficiently lifted up before the eye of their faith. Oh ! 
how much we preachers need the atonement and intercessions 
of Christ to save us from wrath, on account of the imperfection 
of our services ! I am ashamed of myself when I consider how 
St. Paul preached Jesus, and how frequently he repeated His 
name! — not less than nine or ten times in as many verses, as I 
noticed to-day in 1 Cor. i. 1-10 ! He had his reasons for 
mentioning the name of Jesus Christ so often, in the beginning 
of his epistle to this young and ambitious church. 

2. To-morrow night, let the text be Heb. xii. 2; and then 
your preacher is not likely to forget " the name that is above 
every name ! " In the mean time let those concerned keep 
" looking unto Jesus" as the text enjoins. Nor shall I neglect to 
do the same — not for myself only, that my own pensive heart 
may be cheered, but that he may undertake for all who have 
in any way suffered by my neglect. Nor can we fear that He 
who so readily healed the ear of Malchus, that suffered from a 
random slash of Peter's sword, will deny the boon to wounded 
spirits, who, may be, are yet suffering from a random stroke of 
truth, to which, it appears, they were not entitled. Good will 
come out of these inquiries and heart-searchings. 

3. One present may assure himself I know the bleating of 
a lamb or a sheep, within or outside my Lord's fold ; and it 
goes to my heart at once, and sends me to my room to bleat 



REVIVAL I TRUTH AXD ITS EFFECTS. ±7 

also part of the night away, till grief and sleep hush me into 
silence ; especially, if by some blunder, or unguarded sentence, 
eccentricity or infirmity or other, I was the cause of it. Re- 
pentance prevents rebuke, when it happens that from such cause 
grief has found its way into any heart, where my Lord only 
wishes to have gladness and joy. Let this suffice for the pres- 
ent. 

4. One remark more, which I hope may be made here with- 
out offence : I know also the gruntings of other animals, 
whether within or without the fold, as well as I do the bleatings 
of a sheep or a lamb ; swinish natures, though it may seem 
harsh to use the phrase, but they are easily known, who, to use 
the softest 'word, love their husks better than they do eternal 
life. I cannot deny some of these have cost me the loss of 
some needful sleep; nor can they, if the truth were known, 
that they have lost some sleep by me — rather by the power of 
my Lord and Master. One calls such low natures " Grunters 
against goodness ; " and few places there are where such are 
not to be found ; especially where the Gospel " comes not in 
word only, but also in power' 1 ' 1 1 When hit, they grunt so loud 
sometimes, as to set all the little dogs and great dogs in the 
neighborhood a-wondering and a-barking ! So the world 
goes ! but adieu to fretting 1 

5. " A Doubter " will perceive I understand him, and he 
cannot well misunderstand me. It stumbles such an one to 
see " divisions 'in Israel's camp," and that it is evident there 
are some among us who cannot bear to look their own princi- 
ples in the face. Be not surprised, my friend ! Our doctrines 
are tremendous ! If ^devils believe them and tremble, need you 
wonder that some among us tremble too ? Or that some are 



48 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

like those of whom Bernard complained of old, who sought for 
straws during and after the sermon, to put out their own eyes ? 
Or that some who will not mend, are for having an end of such 
preaching? Or that such as love sin more than holiness, and 
what is called eloquence more than sinner-awaking truth, 
should prefer the old request, "Prophecy not unto us right 
things; speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceit" and 
" who say unto the seers, see not f " (Is. xxx. 10.) The few verses 
which follow show their motives, and God's judgment concern- 
ing them. Some are like the Athenians of old, sir, of whom 
it was said, " They had tender ears, and loved toothless truths ;" 
which made Demosthenes tell them plainly they must get their 
ears healed. Some among us must get their consciences healed ; 
then we shall have no difficulty with their cars, I fancy. 

6. It is well for our friend to know a great fact : there are 
fugitives from their own consciences among us, and from divine 
truth, and the justice of God; — just as he knows very well 
there are some wandering up and down the country, fugitives 
from civil justice, and dodging the police as best they can, and 
who are sometimes hard put to it in making good their es- 
cape ! Austin of old detected hearers who had long been 
"fugitives from, their own hearts." Marvel not, then, that some 
are fugitives from the preaching of God's word, which has 
been ringing and flaming round the hallowed walls of this 
temple. I tell you, sir, some would run quite out of this world 
very soon, could they but find another world where there is 
neither hell nor preaching, and all to get rid of preaching. 

7. There was a pinch in that discourse which gave offence, 
nor is it difficult to tell where it pinched. It is not every 
hearer that can say with an old disciple the other day, " I like 



REVIVAL : TRUTH A2sD ITS EFFECTS. 49 

a sermon that has a pinch to it ! " Carnal professors and easily 
awakened sinners rejected it; — and those, most, of course, 
whom it pinched most. It was not so much in the manner of 
it, as the matter of it. Many can bear the manner of a 
preacher, however rough and unpolished, if he is something of 
an original, and amusing. Herod heard John the Baptist gladly, 
and began to practice some things which suited his disposition. 
But when John pinched the conscience of his royal hearer re- 
garding his besetting sin, off went his head. 

8. Hearers I have had before now, which reminded me of 
children beginning to learn their alphabet, with dislike written 
on their faces ! — A, B, C, etc., conveying no meaning ; and evi- 
dently unable to perceive any connection between such dull 
and senseless sounds and the art of reading, all was irksome 
and uninteresting! Repentance, Prayer, Faith, etc., etc., in 
like manner, are irksome lessons to those whom we would set 
to learn the alphabet of experimental religion. They know 
not, or are unwilling to perceive the connection between these, 
and the future pleasure of reading their " title clear to mansions 
in the skies ! " 

9. An hour's amusement, or an hour's amazement, never en- 
ters into my plans w r ith my hearers. No ; but rather their im- 
mediate repentance and conversion. If they are " amazed " at 
this, it may save them from eternal amazement and horror; 
and my predictions^ so often found fault with, may become 
preventions. People begin to profit, usually, when they desire 
to profit. Till then w r e must keep on preaching, whether they 
will hear, or whether they will forbear. I awoke out of a 
deep sleep the other morning, with these words of a devoted 
servant of Christ, now in heaven, occupying, and passing and 



50 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

repassing over my mind: " Faith is the master-spring of a 
minister. Hell is before me, and thousands are shut up there 
in everlasting burnings. Jesus Christ stands forth to save men 
from rushing into the bottomless abyss. He sends me to pro- 
claim his ability and his love. I want no fourth idea ; every 
fourth idea is contemptible ; every fourth idea is a grand im- 
pertinence ! " There is safety for me nowhere else, and no 
longer than I tie myself irrevocably to these principles. Then 
let men or fiends assail, God will not suffer me to be greatly 
moved. 

10. To day I was thinking of Nunia, the philosophical and 
humane emperor of the Romans. The enemy was advancing 
upon his army, while he was in the act of " offering sacri- 
fices to the gods." To one who informed him of his peril, he 
replied, " I am about the service of my God," which he con- 
sidered a sufficient guarantee for his safety. The thought 
cheered me ! " Let him fight who has a mind to it," said 
one of old. " I am not so mad as to fight against him that 
trusts to have God his defender and deliverer ! " He was 
about to march an army to chastise a neighboring prince, a 
pious and good man. The spy returning, reported that when 
this prince was informed that war was intended against him, 
he quietly said he would commit the whole cause to God, and 
give himself to fasting and prayer. " Then," said the monarch, 
" let him fight w T ho," etc. If certain persons have not taken 
leave of their senses, let them reconsider the matter, and be 
of the same mind with this sagacious monarch ! 



CHAPTER VIIL 



HINTS FOR PROFESSORS. 




CHRISTIANS! are you aware, as you should be, that 



the eye of the world is upon you? New converts! are 
you awake to the same fact ? St. Paul urges a " cloud 
of witnesses," as a reason why we should " lay aside every 
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset ws;" or, as 
the old negro (who, if he tasted liquor at all, was sure to get 
drunk, and was overcome again and again) called it in his 
prayer, and with tears running down his cheeks, "the sin that 
doth so easily upset us ! " Ay ! and the world can easily de- 
tect us when we are upset by a temptation. Hearkeu to a 
reply designed for an ear you know not, but connected with 
an eye that has been upon some of you, to the injury of its 
possessor. 

2. They tell an old fable in a certain country through which 
I once travelled, of Inconstancy desiring to have her likeness 
taken, but no artist .would undertake it, because her features 
were so changeable. Old Time, however, at length consented 
to do it ; but being at a loss for a suitable canvas, he selected 
the face of Man, upon which he drew the picture of Incon. 
stancy ; and so, said the fable, man, ever since, has been con- 
stant in nothing but inconstancy ! It is sad that some pro- 
fessors of religion are too frequent in their illustrations of it. 



52 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

But you cannot be ignorant, although not a Christian yourself,, 
how many things there are to assail the stability of those who 
are trying to do well. The waves of the Atlantic are uncount- 
able ; but you might as well try to number them as to count 
the waves of temptation which buffet a Christian on the voyage 
of life. One who passed through much trial before he entered 
the heavenly port, said a Christian, like oil, should always be 
uppermost on the waters; distinct too, and unmixed with the 
world, and steadfast in the integrity of his character, midst all 
the agitations of a tumultuous world ; and that Christians must 
constantly be holding a counter-motion to the course of the 
world, and the corruptions of the times ! Worldlings, though 
they practise not this themselves, readily detect the cessation 
of it in professors. To provide for this, sir, God has ordained 
a " life of faith on the Son of God" and continuing "instant 
in prayer." Constant and instant, is the idea. Inattention 
to this may produce some of those aberrations you have no- 
ticed, and not wilful hypocrisy or self-deception. 

3. An excellent divine in Scotland, I remember, made the 
following shrewd remark, — that there is just this difference 
between certain men of the world, and certain orders of sincere 
but imperfect members of churches : that bad men are worse, 
and good men are better than they appear ; that the attain- 
ments of a believer are always beneath his aims ; his desires 
loftier than his deeds ; his wishes are holier than his works. 
Give other men their will, he contended, let them have full 
sway and swing for their passions, and they would be worse 
than they are ; give that to the sincere believer, and he would 
be better than he is ! 

4. Not a word, however, against your critique, in the main. 



HINTS TO PROFESSORS. 53 

Many such borderers there arc, trimmers between the church 
and the world ; somewhat like one who, in matters of faith and 
practice, tried to keep in with both Christians and Jews, yet 
was neither ; reminding one of Sheridan's simile of the blank 
page between the Old and New Testament ! They are a con- 
tinuation of that careless race noticed by our Lord in his time, 
who heard his sayings, and did them not. He likened them 
to a man who built his house upon the sand. (Matt. vii. 26, 
27.) In the catastrophe which befell that house, he would 
have us to apprehend their final calamity. It is well, however, 
you should remember, that in the wise builder, who built his 
house upon a rock, he indicates another, class of professors; 
and a succession of such continue down to our times ! 

5. Those to whom you refer, are called in Scripture " un- 
stable souls; 11 "unstable as water 11 was the patriarch Jacob's 
figure, adding that such " never excel; " — like water, that takes the 
shape of bucket, tub, or tumbler into which it may be emptied, — 
they take the form and spirit of any company into which they 
may be cast ; but, as Milton remarks, " all are not of this stamp ; " 
many there are " who faith prefer and piety to God." In the 
texture of their firmness, such resemble the adamant, which is 
more likely to break the vessel that would seek to conform it 
to its shape, than to be broken or moulded by it ! If you have 
met with none such, you have been singularly uufortunate. 
Millions of such have passed through this world, since the 
days of Ezekiel, of whom God spake — " Behold, I have made 
thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead against their 
foreheads ; as an adamant, harder than flint, have I made thy 
forehead : fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, 
though they be a rebellious house. 11 This fact may serve to 



54 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

neutralize the effects of the examples upon which you animad- 
vert. Antidotes to poisonous substances are a provision of 
Providence ! 

6. Not a word, then, against your critique, if confined to 
its proper limits. I believe with Aristotle that we may well 
suspect that man's profession whose practice contradicts it. 
Socrates would allow no distinction between knowing and 
doing. He would admit no difference between two certain 
Greek words — although any Greek scholar in our times would 
insist upon a difference — as one implies wisdom alone, and the 
other word wisdom, joined to action. But the old philosopher 
insisted that a do-nothing wisdom was a know-nothing wis- 
dom — next to no wisdom at all ! But to know and to do — to 
know good and to practise it ; — to know evil and to avoid it — 
the union of these two, he considered to be wisdom ! 

1. The practical is the most prominent feature of New 
Testament theology and character. A shrewd observer of man 
remarked that the difference between* divinity aivd science is 
this: that it is not enough to know, we must do it! Look 
around you, my friend ! Are there not some within your circle 
of observation who show proofs of godly fear? some who show 
you how a Christian ought to live in his daily walk and con- 
versation ? Who, in fact, are inscribing upon the minds with 
whom they are brought in contact from year to year, the truth 
of the religion of Jesus Christ, as well as the memorial of their 
own worth, legibly, to such, as the stars in the brow of heaven. 
But, as there are spots in the sky where no stars .do appear, 
yours may be a mind upon which true Christians have had no 
opportunity to make such an impression. The loss is yours, 
if such be the case. Perhaps the truly good have been shy of 



HINTS TO PROFESSORS. 55 

your company. If so, have they had no reasons for it? Nero 
complained that he never could find a faithful servant. He 
■who recorded the complaint, remarked that it was no wonder : 
for those that were good, cared not to come about him ; and 
those that were bad, he cared not to make better, as being 
desperately wicked himself ! 

Hume, the infidel, who observed to one, that he never 
yet found a Christian that was not gloomy, received a very 
proper reply — that if it were so, it was not to be wondered at, 
as a sight of him was enough to make any Christian gloomy ! 
Reflect upon that ! The best of God's people may have 
kept themselves out of your way ; or, your selections for criti- 
cism, like those of Voltaire, have been unfortunate ; or, your 
companionship have been with men of another order altogether ; 
— common occurrences, any of these ! There is a difference be- 
tween the spirit of that man who is a friend at heart toward 
Christians, though not one himself, and the spirit of him who 
is at enmity with them, and on the lookout for faults to con- 
firm him in his infidelity ! I was told of a skeptic the other 
day, who, after his conversion, confessed that during thirteen 
years he had watched a certain plain, bumble, praying woman, 
to find something in her character to confirm or strengthen 
him in his infidelity ; but he watched in vain. At length he 
thought it high time to secure an interest in Christ. He did 
so, and confessed the course he had taken. That Christian 
woman little suspected how much depended upon her faith- 
fulness ! 

8. How this revival is stirring -up skeptics! It was said 
of Jesus, when a child, that he was set for the fall and rising 
of many in Israel ; and for a sign to be spoken against ; — by 



56 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

whom the thoughts of many should be revealed. We may- 
say the same of this great work of God. It is well ! This is 
the time for the Gospel to be looked at ! — now that it is 
among us, as a fresh charter from heaven, which multitudes 
are now, disposed to consult as the charter of their salvation ; — 
now, when it is opening many hearts, as Jesus himself opened 
the heart of Lydia under the preaching of Paul and Silas ; — 
now that hearts hitherto shut against the truth, are flowing 
open under the penetrating word of Gospel power ; — now that 
people are believing who never believed before ; and tongues 
hitherto mute upon the subject, are day and night rehearsing 
the goodness of God ; — so that were Chrysostom among us, 
he might say once more, they live well who lived evilly before ; 
and obey now, who never obeyed before ! — now is the time 
for skeptics to be astir ! — the best time for them and for us ! 

9. It is well ! The. old adage, " They may laugh who win ! " 
applies finely to Christians just now ! Wind and tide are in 
their favor ! Glad therefore certain clubs are alive and stir- 
ring, with eyes wide awake, nor turned askance, but looking 
straight before them, as Solomon advises ; and a good hope we 
have that " the eyes of their understanding " may be opened 
also. We hail their presence as a good omen — can bear their 
bad manners with better heart and more patience now, than 
when religion was prostrate, and the Gospel, from some cause, 
powerless. We may reason with them, as did Paul with the 
unbelieving Jew T s, and in the presence of mighty and incon- 
testable facts ! 

10. He who believes with one of the fathers of the Chris- 
tian Church, that " the whole business of a minister in this 
life is to heal the eye of the sinner's heart, that God may be 



HINTS TO PROFESSORS. 57 

seen" will not think me out of the way of my calling, to meet 
on their own ground for the purpose ; ay, and pay all possible 
attention to them. " The whole need not a physician, but they 
that are sick.' 1 ' 1 But let all professors of religion beware, when 
such men get their eyes opened, that they by their inconsist- 
encies and misconduct do not blind them again. God will 
require it of them, if they do. 

11. Opposition I care nothing about. Better that than in- 
difference. "Opposition is the evil angel that dogs the Gos- 
pel," said Calvin to the French king. An evil angel it is to 
some, and has often made the saints smart for it. But I have 
often er had to complain that public indifference is an evil angel 
also, and, under some circumstances, the worst of the two. 
That is the reason I can bear opposition with fortitude or 
cheerfulness. When winning souls to Christ, I can " laugh at 
the shaking of a spear" like Job's leviathan. God is convert- 
ing many sinners, some of them notable sinners and skeptics ; 
of whose conversion we may say as one did of a bell, it is not 
possible to turn it from side to side, without reporting its 
own motions ! no, unless its tongue were tied. These have 
had their tongues unloosed, and they give glory to God, till 
the place rings again with their voices ; and by them many are 
called and recalled to go to work in the vineyard. Like bells 
they do indeed report their own motions, when turned from 
Satan to " the Lord's side," by the hand of Gospel power ! 
Hallelujah ! 



CHAPTER IX. 

METHOD WITH QUESTIONISTS. 

^HRISTIANS credulous? By no means! Christians 
Y? think closely. They have the largest liberty . to can- 
vass every doctrine of Protestantism; indeed, every 
truth of Christianity ! I believe with an old writer that all 
Christ's scholars are questionists, though not question-sick, 
like some of those who swarm around us at the present 
time ; not triflers, like those in 1 Tim. vi. 4, who were " doat- 
ing about questions, and strife of words;" or those perverse 
disputers — men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth — 
or those light and feathery souls, recorded in Ephes. iv. 14, 
" tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doc- 
trine" Those who belong to Jesus Christ are of a more sub- 
stantial order, rooted and grounded in the truth, and built up 
in their most holy faith. 

2. I have no objection to " questions," provided they are 
serious and important; otherwise you may receive a reply 
after the manner of the ancient philosopher, to one wbo asked 
him seriously, whether he did not think it a pleasing thing to 
see the sun ? — " That is a blind man's question." There are 
some questionists who deserve a similar rebuke. 

3. Nor am I fond of curious questions, more curious than 



METHOD WITH QTJESTIOXISTS. 59 

useful. It is of little consequence to us wlicre hell is located, 
provided we can only persuade men to leave the way that leads 
to it; for that is more clearly laid down in the Scriptures than 
the location of that terrible place. When a man is sinning 
against God, he is going straight toward hell, no matter to 
what poiut of the compass his face may be turned ! I hope, 
sir, you do not illustrate in your own character the shrewd 
remark of one now in eternity, that some have a much stronger 
desire to know where hell is, than to know any way of escape 
from going into it ! 

4. And there are crochety questions, the offspring of some 
whim, conceit, or fancy. A brain filled with these has little 
room for anything else. These, and such-like questions, de- 
serve the fate of those books of the " curious arts," which made 
such a glorious bonfire in the market-place of Ephesus, in the 
days of the apostles ! 

5. A man may have many questions answered, and be none 
the better. Besides, the time employed in answering them, if 
turned to better questions, might result in eternal good to the 
inquirer. There is a difference between a man that leans 
against a twig, and him who leans against the trunk of the tree. 
A wit illustrated the folly of such queries, by the conduct of a 
simpleton tracing a 'pinnacle, where he might fall, when he 
might be more profitably employed in walking upon the solid 
ground ! This mode of reply is hardly what you expected ; 
yet, in " the long run," it may be more profitable to you, if 
thereby you are induced to inquire after better things. 

6. But when it is evident Satan is imposing upon certain 
inquiring minds, offering them stones for bread, and serpents 
for fish, I endeavor to persuade them to cast away the grievous 



60 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

imposition, by offering them the true provisions of the Gospel, 
provided for them by the Friend of sinners. 

7. Regarding hell, wherever it may be located in eternity, 
be assured its torments are neither brief nor tolerable. Let 
those remarks of an eminent Scotch divine enter into your 
ears, and sink into your heart : that had wrath been either 
tolerable or terminable, the sword of justice had never been 
dyed with the blood nor sheathed in the body of her noblest 
Victim. And, if I believe there is a need be for the lightest 
cross that lies on a good man's lot, oh ! how great the neces- 
sity for that upon which the Saviour died ! He added, surely 
were God but for a moment to let us hear the wail and shriek- 
ing of the lost, that sound, more terrible than Egypt's cry, 
would startle the deepest sleeper, rouse the student at his books, 
arrest the foot of the dancer at the ball, and stop armies in the 
fury of the fight ; striking terror into the boldest hearts, it 
would bend the most stubborn knee, and extort from all that 
one loud cry, " Lord, save me ! I perish ! " As to myself, sir, 
if I preach a hell for sinners after death, it is, 1st, because I 
believe it; and 2d, it is that my hell-exposed hearers may fly 
with me to heaven. If my sermons have dark backgrounds, sj 
have some of the finest paintings ; but let that pass. Had you 
listened to the wild scream of the mother bird the other day, 
you could not have doubted her affection for her young, in 
peril. Ah ! sir, if my voice has more of the " wailings of the 
lost " than the tones of " manly eloquence,'-' ascribe it to the 
view God has given me of the peril of sinners, and my strong 
affection for them. 

8. The remaining " queries " are worth y of attention. Two 
observations allow 'me to make. There are two notions I have 



METHOD WITH QUESTIOXISTS. 61 

never yet traced in the Scriptures, nor found allowed there : 
1st. Indifference as to matters of faith, or opinion. 2d. Free- 
dom from responsibility for religious opinions, whether true or 
false. If true, we are always held accountable there, for the 
good we might, if we w T ould, accomplish by them ; if false, for 
the evil we may do by them. " To him that knoiveth to do 
good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin," is a New Testa- 
ment axiom. Truth and goodness are represented in the 
Bible as being the fountain each of the other ; and so also 
error and wickedness ; as if the one could not exist without 
the other. The deduction of accountability is plain, and that 
we are responsible for our opinions ; consequently that there is 
no fatality about the reception of them, as if we could not be- 
lieve otherwise if we would ; especially is it clear in Scripture 
that we are accountable for what we might hare known, as well 
as for what we did know! Therefore that sentiment of a 
distinguished orator and statesman receives no countenance 
from the Bible — that men are no more responsible for their 
opinions than they are for the height of their stature or the 
hue of their skin. Nay, nay, good orator ! although the 
poetry and sophistry of ages have been advocating this notion, 
it never can affect this great principle, that for such opinions 
as increase or lessen men's stature in wickedness, or which 
darken or brighten the moral complexion of their nature, they 
are certainly responsible to God. There is nothing taught or 
assumed in the word of God contrary to this position. If 
these " notions " come in collision with those " broad views 
of charity " so prevalent in our times, be it so ; if the Bible 
gives no countenance to such a positive and destructive error, 
should I? Nay, verily! all the embellishments of orators, 



62 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

poets, and latitudinarians to the contrary notwithstanding ! 
Here I stand, God help me ! Faithfulness to this principle 
reddened the earth with the blood of Christ's martyrs. 

9. The providence of God, and His own word, join issue 
upon this point, against the indifference claimed, and our free- 
dom from responsibility for our opinions, and their fruits ; and 
with an earnestness and severity not to be mistaken. Who of 
us has never suffered from error of judgment? The late Mr* 
Dodd put this in a strong light thus : " Persuade yourself that 
poison has no noxious property, and see whether this will de- 
prive it of its deadly character. Take a viper in your bosom 
under the conviction it is harmless, and see whether the con- 
viction will extract or blunt its sting. Teach yourself to be- 
lieve that industry is not necessary to success in life, and 
see whether this belief will shield you from the privations 
which follow in the train of indolence." To which add the 
persuasion that rum has no intoxicating and perilous quality, 
and see if it does not make you giddy, and set you reeling to 
and fro ! There are drunken opinions, sir, as well as intoxicating 
liquors ! and they cause men to make strange tracks on the high- 
way of life, and as strange gyrations in morals ! 

Signals of warning are displayed everywhere throughout 
the Bible, nature, and providence, that the salvation of soul and 
body is tied to our opinions, and that there are opinions as in- 
jurious to the soul as poison to the body — as the viper's sting, 
as indolent habits to our temporal interests, as intoxicating 
liquors — ay ! but as much more as the miseries of hell do sur- 
pass the sorrows of earth. 



CHAPTER X. 



DEALIXG WITH CRITICS. 



iRECISELY! That was my sentiment— that there 
&j> are opinions which intoxicate the brain and befool 
*&£*% the heart : " drunken opinions " was the phrase, and 
not so inappropriate either ; for we have known them to set 
men a-reeling from one faith to another, and from error 
to error, and from heresy to heresy, like a drunken man, from 
wall to wall, and from ditch to ditch, on good terms with 
neither, until, falling into a still deeper ditch, out of which he 
never came alive, they staggered, poor souls ! at length, into 
" the bottomless pit." Why should you think it strange that 
with such " fiery zeal " we grappled with minds possessed of 
such opinions? Had such been in danger of drowning, or in 
peril of perishing in a burning building, would you have 
blamed our fiery zeal in trying to rescue them ? Want of 
faith, or overmuch fastidiousness, makes a difficult hearer. It 
is no offence to me to be criticised. Every public speaker 
is subject to it, and should submit himself to it, amiably 
as possible. It is a right the great public claim, and it is 
commendable policy to concede the right with as good grace 
as possible, and — take our own way, after all, if we know it to 
be right, for that is our right also. 

2. We owe, nevertheless, to that same public, to explain 



64- ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

respectfully why we differ ; nor should we neglect the individ- 
ual critic, perchance the representative of that public. For an 
instance, I have just now to call upon an ingenious critic to 
hearken, while I tell him I am not generally ambitious to say 
all that might be said \*pon a text, nor do I usually find it con- 
venient to discuss every doctrine, duty, or theme which an 
acute hearer may notice there, and which he supposes " con- 
science should impel " the preacher to notice also. A single 
principle or proposition I have found frequently to be more 
effective than several, though the text seemed to invite to 
them. But I can return to the text. For this reason, among 
others, it is my custom to take the same text some half dozen 
times during a revival. Thus, that which has been left un- 
touched in one discourse may be called into action and pressed 
home in another, and with marked effect. Neither do I think it 
profitable to try to cram every doctrine in the creed into every 
discourse, although I desire to offer Christ in every sermon. 
The doctrine which bears most directly upon the subject on 
hand, and which the text most plainly proves or illustrates, 
that is the doctrine for the hour. Now, there is nothing very 
uncommon in all this. Many other ministers pursue a similar 
course. After such an explanation, my critic may perceive, if 
a certain point was " eluded " when preaching from a certain 
text, it was not from the cause insinuated, but because other 
points, more applicable to my congregation, demanded my 
time and strength. 

3. Besides, sir, do you not remember that Quintilian con- 
sidered it a virtue in a grammarian to be ignorant of some 
things; or Pliny's hint, that it no less became an orator to 
hold his tongue, sometimes, than to speak ? A preacher may 



DEALING WITH CRITICS. 65 

resemble the painter with whom Apelles found fault, that he 
never understood when he had done enough, and so spoiled all 
in over-doing 1 Nonnius' mark of a good hunter may do for 
the poor preacher, " that he can catch some beasts, though he 
take not all." By the way, those who hear me every night 
understand my plans better than those who only attend now 
and then. Lysippus, the famous carver, had the following 
printed in Greek over his best pieces, when exhibited to the 
public : " Lysippus hath something more to do at this work," 
— a good method to arrest or disarm criticism. Well, sir, my 
hearers understand this of many of my texts and sermons, with- 
out my telling them. I believe, sir, with old Columella, that 
nothing can be perfected at first ; it is only consummated by 
singular industry. Patience, then, my dear sir. The subject, 
like life, in death, may be all retouched again. 

4. I am but a poor controversialist at best, grappling only 
with an error when it stands in my way, and not inclined to 
go far out of my way to hunt for it ! I prostrate it, if I can, 
then fling it out of my way, and march on in the good old 
way of preaching the Gospel ! Skeptics do not fancy these 
" bach-handed blows," as they call them ; but I find them use- 
ful and successful. They do make gaps sometimes in certain 
ranks. Have patience, then, the subject may be resumed. In 
the mean time take care that the gates of eternity do not open 
to receive you sooner than you are prepared to pass through 
them. 

5. And now a few words for your two friends. 1st. "A 
faultless style in the pulpit " is a rare attainment. And what 
may surprise them, I am not anxious to acquire it. If in seek- 
ing to attain unto it, or in striving to maintain it, I should lose 



6Q ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

sight of the main object in preaching, the salvation of sinners, 
and so miss winning a soul to Christ, the loss would far over- 
balance the advantages. Quintilian tells us of one whose 
greatest excellence was that he had no fault, and his greatest 
defect that he had no excellence ! Those who are fond of that 
sort of pulpit style, are welcome to it. It is convenient, and 
pleasing, doubtless to such as have uneasy or troublesome con- 
sciences. When a minister is truly alive to God, and is seek- 
ing with all his might to arouse sinners to flee from the wrath 
to come, it is not easy to avoid " certain things," in expression 
and manner, which certain persons would pronounce a defect. 
Versatility of style seems to me inseparable from a passion for 
soul-saving, especially if accompanied by genius. An eminent 
divine of bygone centuries used to say, " Ministers should 
turn themselves into all shapes and fashions, both in spirit and 
speech, to gain souls to God ! " A course that will ever be in- 
tolerable to the spirit of the world ! 2d. As to " eloquence," 
I have long been of the opinion of one, that " whenever a man 
speaks or writes, he is supposed as a rational being to have 
some end in view ; either to inform, or to amuse, or to persuade, 
or in some way to act upon his fellow creatures ; " and that 
" he who speaks or writes in such a manner as to adapt all 
his words most effectually to that end, is the most eloquent 
man ! " This idea used to give me a good deal of comfort and 
courage when a stripling preacher. It mattered but little with 
me what people thought of my elocution, if so be that my 
point was carried — in melting, and moving people to trust in 
Christ, to love him, and to glorify God ; in awaking, and con- 
vincing hitherto sleepy and hardened sinners, so as to find 
myself surrounded by dozens, or scores of them, weeping and 



DEALINGS WITH CRITICS. 67 

crying for mercy ; ay ! and the place vocal with the thanks- 
givings of new converts and the hallelujahs of older Christians ! 
Eloquence, or declamation, folks might call it what they 
pleased, for aught the preacher cared, just then ! He had done 
his best, for that time, with a single intention and pure desire. 
The Gospel was the power of God, before many witnesses, and 
he was happy ! I am much of the same mind still ! Oh ! for yet 
greater displays of the power of God ! — but for thy glory only, 
my Lord Jesus Christ. 

6. Eloquence is grace of speech. True eloquence is the 
offspring of the passions, and yet it is an art — the art of per- 
suasion — the art of speaking well, and to the purpose, so as to 
secure the end desired. It is the art of pleasing, informing, 
convincing, moving, persuading. It can be employed in dif- 
fusing good, or spreading ill. The Greeks and Romans inti- 
mated this in their god Mercury, who was the god of eloquence, 
merchandise, and robbery ! He was not only a god, in their 
estimation, but the messenger of the gods. " Will a man rob 
God?" Eloquence has often claimed to be his messenger, 
seeking his glory, yet all the while seeking its own ! Alas for 
it ! It is best to watch it narrowly ! It may be in commis- 
sion for selfish purposes, or for the general weal ; for the glory 
of God and human welfare, or for self-glory and selfish inter- 
ests, which one called " a selfish villany n if found in the pulpit, 
and at war with the spirit of the Gospel. 

7. The celebrated Robert Hall, himself so famous for his 
pulpit eloquence, remarked, on a certain occasion, that he dis- 
paired to see a consummate orator perfectly associated with a 
Christian teacher ; that the ornaments of secular eloquence, pro- 
fusely displayed, weaken the effects of the truths of the Gos- 



68 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

pel ; that those exquisite paintings, and nice touches of art, 
which belong to oratory, may excite the imagination without 
interfering at all with the awful functions of conscience, merely 
absorbing the admiration, and affording a feast to taste, without 
being the instrument of conviction ; that such attempts at 
pulpit oratory decoy the preacher away from the peculiar doc- 
trine of the Gospel, which would only give him a feeling of 
constraint, limiting the excursions of his imagination and con- 
fining him from his fine expatiations in the flowery field of 
declamation ! Such was the opinion of a great master of 
eloquence, w r ho for many years, and by experience and obser- 
vation, had the best opportunity of forming a correct judgment 
of the matter. 

8. A profusion of ornament, and an evident straining after 
more, at the risk, as Herbert observes, of 

" Catching the sense at two removes," 

has been mistaken for eloquence by some superficial persons ; 
even the greatest absurdities have, carried the palm when so 
adorned. Common sense is, frequently, too homely an endow- 
ment for such a style, unless " decked up to the very taste of 
flesh and blood," and beyond it, like the poor lady, who, in her 
hurry, so mismanaged her rouge as to mistake her nose, forehead, 
and ears for her cheeks ! Or like the lady in her hoops, who 
tempted the simple-hearted waiting-maid to exclaim, " Madam, 
is all that yourself? " Common sense will hardly do for some, 
unless transformed into uncommon sense! If attended with 
uncommon usefulness, one might bid it " God speed," but 
alas ! 



CHAPTER XL 

PULPIT ELOQUENCE. 

My dear sir, people have little time 
^^JCa as inclination to think of it, during preaching — the 
«*?S^7 usual time to form an opinion ! Conscience is too busy 
within them to allow it ; at least this is the preacher's 
aim ! Their salvation is more desired than their admiration. 
This fact can hardly escape the transitory hearer, who seldom 
leaves without feeling some stirrings of conscience ; hence it is 
no uncommon thing to hear of offence having been taken, and 
dislike, and determination to " go there no more " — expressed 
in various ways. Could you see the letters he receives almost 
daily, you could better realize all this. The panorama of new 
faces presented nightly in our congregations tell a story, for 
they do not usually enlarge ; but, had all continued to come 
who have showed themselves here the last four weeks, two or 
three chapels would have been insufficient, ere this, to have 
held them. There will be a reflux by aud by, when they get 
over their huff, or when it is found conscience cannot be 
silenced. Amen ! 

I have been thinking lately of what is recorded of some 
of our Lord's hearers, who, after one of his discourses, ex- 
claimed, "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" And 
what next ? " Many from that time went back and walked no 



70 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

more with him." No longer acknowledged him either as the 
Messiah, or their teacher, and ceased to wait upon his minis- 
try. A fear of losing hearers is a great temptation to unfaith- 
fulness in the pulpit. Many a good revival has been prevented 
by a change in the style of a preacher, through fear of men. 
So greatly had our Lord's hearers diminished, in consequence 
of the discourse referred to, he mournfully inquired of his dis- 
ciples, " Will ye also go away ? " But did he soften the truth 
after that, or flinch from its faithful utterance ? No. Among 
those of his hearers who remained was Judas, the traitor. The 
abyss was near over which he was so soon to plunge. Truth 
must utter a warning voice, whether it gave offence to others 
besides Judas, or not. " Have not I chosen you twelve, and one 
of you is a devil ? " It is seldom a faithful ministry is long 
without some such causes of humiliation, and comfort. But 
when rightly viewed, he may enjoy much secret satisfaction 
in the thought of having the honor of being as his Master with 
regard to a diminished congregation, in consequence of a faith- 
ful declaration of the truth ! 

But to proceed : A friend of mine defined eloquence to be 
" a round and flowing style ; " but much of what you have 
heard here lately, and which you hav^ so kindly approbated, 
has been abrupt and impulsive ; fragmentary, indeed, and an- 
gular as broken flints ! which those who are fond of oratorical 
grace and beauty, to say nothing of their sins, are never likely 
to admire. At any rate, I find it good and convenient to take 
this into the account ; and if the contrary occurs after presum- 
ing upon such a style, one is agreeably disappointed. This 
style, it cannot be denied, is usually wanting in smoothness, 
roundness, stateliness, softness, cadence, and — what not ! There 



PULPIT ELOQUENCE. 71 

is a style, soft, insinuating, and flowery, which frequently bears 
away the palm ; descriptive, too, as a picture gallery, full of 
figures which appear before the eye of the mind as if they 
fed on roses, and were dressed to the verge of foppery ! and 
when set off with the necessary accompaniments in the orator, 
which he is not likely to forget, in tones, looks, and gestures, is 
highly fascinating. Rocks are never thrown down by such ele- 
ments ! (Nahum i. 6.) Nor is it likely God often points to it, 
saying as of old, " Is not my word like as a fire, and like a 
hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces." (Jer. xxiii. 29.) 

I say nothiug against a pictorial style of preaching, if nat- 
ural, easy, appropriate, and not carried to excess, and the 
preacher has a genius for it. It is a species of painting. It is 
like putting his sentiments in dress ; a method, so to speak, of 
giving a kind of visibility, color, and substance to his ideas. 
And if those sentiments or ideas are of themselves suitable to 
inform the judgment and assist the conscience, or to excite 
hope, or fear, or love, such illustrations greatly increase their 
power. I know a successful preacher who frequently adopts 
this style in the fervor of his appeals, and with considerable 
effect. Nothing against this style, if to all this be added 
" strength of sentiment, and weight of matter ; " otherwise, 
he may be worthy of as much attention and patience as he 
who endeavors to render floating gossamer pictorial. 

There is also a lofty, showy, diffusive style, sonorous in 
words and sentences, with a manifest straining after tinsel and 
brilliancy — which some consider eloquent. He who wins 
reputation and popularity by that, the great public will expect 
to maintain it. This has destroyed many. 

Passion is the fountain of eloquence ; and the warmer the 



72 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

fountain the better, if the people are not to be convinced only, 
but melted and moved. Real eloquence is but the expression 
of the heart's enthusiasm ; it is the language of the heart and 
its passions, and, in proportion to their warmth, it is apt to be 
vivid, broken, and impetuous. 

'• But here again the danger lies " 

to reputation for a certain style of eloquence ! " The hottest 
springs send forth their waters by ebullitions" says an old 
Christian writer on prayer. ' The simile applies to the subject 
on hand. It suggests the idea of abruptness and irregularity 
of sentences, at least ; not very friendly withal to that flowing 
elocution which won for an orator those graceful lines : 

" Eloquence, obedient to his call, 
Sailed down his flow of words with swan-like pride 1 " 

No swans are ever seen among the rapids of Montmorency ! 

To return to the old writer's simile : The waters projected 
from hot springs, though they may be useful and have their 
medical qualities (like the style of pulpit speech we have been 
speaking of), yet they are never expected to discourse the elo- 
quence of a Niagara, or to exhibit the flowing majesty of the 
Rhine or the Hudson. 

To one capable of the higher flights of eloquence, but who 
adopts more generally a humbler style for the sake of useful- 
ness, there may be some little sacrifice, perhaps ; if of vanity 
and pride, the better it will be, unquestionably, both for him- 
self and for his hearers. Ah ! sir, motive, right, conscientious 
motive, renders all that sort of thing easy enough ! Give me 



PULPIT ELOQUENCE. 73 

a ivarm heart, burning with love and sympathy for poor hell- 
exposed sinners, and there is no difficulty in persuading oneself 
to adopt both matter and manner to effect the purposes of the 
heart. And when the results are visible — when " the slain of 
the Lord" and the healed, and the saved are many, there is an 
income of joy, gladness, and satisfaction to «the heart, which 
eloquence has never yet realized from mere popular applause ! 

That kind of preaching which usually wins the title of elo- 
quence is, somehow, singularly unsuccessful in the awakeniug 
and conversion of sinners. At the same time we are ac- 
quainted with plain men, whom nobody considers eloquent, 
and sinners are being constantly saved under their ministry. 
Why is this ? Is it because the orator, by absorbing the admi- 
ration of the sinner, diminishes in the same proportion the 
power of conscience to exercise its functions ? Or, that the 
themes upon which he expatiates are not suitable to stir the 
conscience, or plant conviction in the heart ? Far be it from 
me to express lightly of good elocution, which is simply a good 
delivery — the power to express one's thoughts with elegance 
and beauty, and in a clear and convincing manner. And 
what is this, after all, but pure and simple eloquence ! But, 
with regard to those " arts of rhetoric," etc., etc., which your 
friends admire so much in certain of their great orators, they 
are unfit for this service. With all due respect, they would 
be as unsuitable to him who would bring down scores of 
hitherto hardened sinners to their knees to cry for mercy, 
as Saul's armor was to David when he would encounter 
the giant of Gath ! He preferred his sling, a few stones from 
the brook, and his simple faith and trust in the power of God ! 
And so do we in the matter of preaching ; fragmentary, fre- 



74 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

quently, as pebbles, and sharp as the angles of flint, yet it 
does wonderful execution among sinners. Perhaps, as in the 
case of the stripling David, this style, more than that which is 
adorned by the graces of elocution, necessitates the faith which 
certainly does impart the overcoming power ! 

All these things, my excellent friend, have been pondered 
long, and well, years ago. Eloquence ! according to the 
standard of some ? Ah, no ! no pretensions to aught else than 
plain honesty of thought, purpose, and expression. Nothing 
more ! Cold enough, indeed, at times, and vehement. What- 
ever name the style may go by, for I have none for it myself — 
although vexed hearers and troubled sinners have given it 
names enough, some of which have not been very flattering to 
personal vanity, I assure you — yet, I cannot deny, that like the 
rod of Moses on the rock at Horeb, it has drawn water 
wherever it has touched ! has opened the flood-gates of 
sacred sympathy — sympathy with scenes on Calvary ; with 
revival scenes ; despairing sinners, how they found their way 
into the bleeding arms of a dear Redeemer! — the tempted 
believer, how he gained the victory over the tempter, while 
he held up the blood of the Lamb as a shield, and used 
the sword of the Spirit in the fight ! — sympathy with death- 
bed scenes, with faith triumphant even under the overshadow- 
ing wings of death ; sympathy with the dying sinner passing 
the dark and mortal vale, the horrifying night of death closing 
fearfully around him, and death himself pressing so heavily 
upon his senses as to prevent the message of salvation from 
penetrating to his departing spirit ; sympathy with scenes of 
unbelief and despair — with souls perishing in hell ; or borne 
on angels' wings upward through opening gates into an eternal 



PULPIT ELOQUENCE. 75 

Paradise! Ay! so have we seen this sympathy increasing 
before us every moment, till one general outcry told us of ap- 
proaching victory ! till hearts of stone melted and flowed as 
fountains of penitential sorrow ; and better yet, oh ! wondrous 
change ! flowed on in streams of love to God and man, spark- 
ling with joy and gladness, and full of the light and sunshine 
of heaven ! With such scenes as these attending the word 
preached, I give care to the winds as to what spectators may 
think about the preacher's style or manner. This is all I have 
to say at present. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THOUGHTS ON PULriT STYLE, CONTINUED. 




) ) ^lCNQUIRIES, such as yours, are never offensive. They 
iTOp? are always interesting, because the subjects of them 

*jjjk£$ so nearly concern our Redeemer's kingdom, espe- 
cially with regard to the good which our young' friend may 
yet accomplish for Him, and the importance of right views 
upon the subject of preaching. I am greatly pressed for 
time. When the matter of "pulpit style" has had a 
thought, it has called forth, I confess, such a feeling of oppress- 
ive humiliation, that the subject has been gratefully dropped ; 
grateful to my gracious Lord and Master, for his great con- 
descension in accepting and blessing such poor and defective 
efforts to the salvation of sinners ; and taking the liberty, 
though feeling very unworthy to do so, of cheering my heart 
by a consideration of that sweet apology of St. Paul : " And 
my speech, and my preaching, was not with enticing words of man's 
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power : that 
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the 
power of God.'''' In the latter clause of this confession, or 
apology, he gives us his motives for so doing. If you will 
consult the first verse of the chapter (1 Cor. ii. 1), you will 
learn yet more ; that when he visited the city of Corinth, the 
idea that an eloquent preacher had come among them was the 



THOUGHTS OX PULPIT STYLE. 77 

furthest from his thoughts ; or that he had any intention of 
using those arts of rhetoric which might win him that title ; 
or, indeed, that he had been led, during his stay among them, 
to fancy at any time that the people thought him eloquent. 
" And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much 
trembling." Blessed man! " Determined not to know any- 
thing among " them " save Jesus Christ and him crucified." 
Whatever other temptation he had, it seems he had none to 
spiritual pride on account of his oratory, or from the people 
extolling him on that account, or because of their withholding 
the honor which he considered due to his oratorical powers. 
Oh ! for more of Paul's spirit, exemplified in the preachers of 
the present day ! How ought it to fill one with shame, to be 
conscious of a different spirit ! That alone should be enough 
to make one tremble before God, whether in or out of the 
pulpit. 

Every preacher, I suppose, forms some opinion regarding 
his own style or manner of enforcing truth from the pulpit. 
If it happen that he stumbles upon the idea that he is eloquent, 
w r hen his hearers have formed a very different opinion, it may 
become a source of considerable unhappiness and disorder of 
temper. This I can say, sir : if I have never thought highly 
of my own elocution, I have of that of others. There is a true 
and sanctified eloquence, as there is that which is falsely so 
called. How often, like bees on roses, have I, with others, 
hung upon the lips of eloquence, saying in our hearts — 

' l Blest Jesus, what delicious fare ! 
How sweet thine entertainments are ! 
Never did angels taste above 
Redeeming grace and dying love ! ' 



78 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

There are eloquent souls in this world, who, though unblest 
with a high order of eloquence themselves, have genius for it; 
such are the first to discover in a speaker " this breeze of nature 
stirring in the soul ! " for the breeze reaches them soon as it 
begins to stir, and soon they are all alive with emotion and 
eloquence within ! Do you understand me ? If we had more 
of these in our congregation, there would be finer and more 
frequent outbursts of this sort of eloquence. A dull spirited 
and frigid audience are seldom favored with it; they possess 
an atmosphere of frigidity, which chills it, or kills it, or drives 
it out of the pulpit. Their looks are enough ! 

It is not often I have an opportunity of hearing some of 
my gifted brethren ; but the privilege is sometimes allowed 
me. Oh ! but I do love to sit and listen when "the breeze of 
nature" and of grace is stirring in the God-sent messenger! 
when the intellect, " large-thoughted, and up to the mark of 
the fearless and clear truth," and scattering around it its rich 
thoughts, as the tree its fruit by the breezes of autumn ! — re- 
joicing one's heart to perceive that Israel has yet her "people- 
leaders" as the Athenians tenned their great orators ; princes 
of the human intellect, as Edward Irving called them ; lights 
of the world, walking in the high places of the understanding; 
the commanding spirits of the times, clothed with intelligence, 
as with a garment — bestirring themselves like angels, and like 
arch-angels strong — 

" Who shed great thoughts 
As easily as an oak looseneth its golden leaves 
In a kindly largess to the soil it grew on — 
Whose rich, dark ivy thoughts, sunnd o'er with love, 
Flourish around the deathless stem of their manes — 



THOUGHTS ON PULPIT STYLE. 79 

"Whose names are ever on the world's tongue, 

Like sounds upon the falling force — 

Whose words, if winged, are with angels' wings — 

"Who play upon the heart, as on a harp — 

Whose hearts have a look southward, and are open 

To the whole noon of nature ! " 

That quaint proverb of the ancients, a friend of mine some- 
times applies to preaching : " Many things go to the making 
of all things." It is so in nature, and also in art, and why 
should it not be so in preaching? In a soul-saving style it is 
always so ; that, like Nature, always seems to abhor a same- 
ness, and prefers variety ! I am partial to that style of which 
one speaks so charmingly, call it by what name you please, 
which, he says, " possesses some peculiar charm, which fasci- 
nates the soul into forgetfulness of either languors or labors, 
and which sweetly prevents their minds straying away out of 
doors in sighing weariness to the fighting world or storms of 
life without." Ay ! and fonder of it still, if there be that in it 
to lead poor sinners captive at its will, and bring them all bro- 
ken and weeping to the Friend of sinners ! I believe also with 
Mr. Jay, that "all eloquence in the pulpit, which does not 
arise from feeling, and produce it, is as sounding brass and tink- 
ling cymbal ! " and I am of the same opinion as Seneca, though 
I will not despise an elegant physician, yet will I not think 
myself much happier for his adding eloquence to his healing 
art ! 

But I must hasten, as other duties call. " A polished style 
of speech is pleasing and attractive, of course, as it shows the 
beauties and capabilities of our language. I like to hear it, if 
it seem natural and easy, and free from constraint and stiffness 



80 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

— simplicity is the word; and when immediate effect has not 
been polished out of it. If the awakening and conversion of 
sinners, or a baptism of fire upon the souls of listening be- 
lievers, attend it, success to it ! But if these are sacrificed to 
it, as is too frequently the case, God forbid I should say so, if 
success is to mean it shall become popular, so as to be adopted 
by our young preachers I 

A style may be polished until cold to iciness, and too bright 
withal for the radiation of Gospel heat: you know my mean- 
ing ! Have you never noticed that the darker and rougher 
the sides and bed of a fire-place are, the more heat is radiated 
through the room ; and the more bright, polished, and lustrous 
such places are, the less heat is thrown out around ? This is a 
fireside fact, and in accordance with a law of nature with 
which you may have formed some acquaintance, and which we 
cannot very well alter. May it not illustrate a pulpit fact, also, 
that a rough and out-of-the-way style, other things being equal, 
will radiate more Gospel heat and life through a congregation, 
than a highly polished and finished style of utterance ? This 
holds good in nine cases out of ten, account for it as you may. 
Perhaps the consciousness of the fact of the unpolished char- 
acter of the address of the former may lead him to greater 
earnestness to have the heavenly fire superadded ; while the 
latter may be tempted to rely more upon his polished style for 
effect, than upon supernatural influence. Those who are so 
happy as to combine both in their pulpit ministrations, are 
usually the most successful preachers. 

The' Rev. Rowland Hill used to say of some sermons he 
heard, " They remind me of a hailstorm upon pantiles ; they 
make a deal of noise, but produce no impression." On an- 



THOUGHTS OX PULPIT STi'LE. 81 

other occasion he said, "I don't like those mighty fine preach- 
ers, who so beautifully round off all their sentences that they 
are sure to roll off the sinner's conscience ! " He added, that 
the out-of-the-way style of preaching was the best sort of 
preaching, for catching those who are out of the way. Dean 
Miller once was heard to exclaim, " It is this slop-dash preach- 
ing, say what they will, that does all the good." The good 
sense of your friend cannot fail to appreciate these remarks. 

And now a few hints for the judgment of your other friends. 
It is with some preachers, as with real %)oet$ : 

"The native ba/rds first plunged the deep, 
Before the artful dared to leap ! " 

For my part I cannot keep a thought back till it freezes, or 
loses all courage before it leaves the heart ; turning it round 
and round, arming it merely with caution, and "dressing it up, 
as if to sell," as the Spaniard remarked. No ! but out with 
it, full of heart, courage, fire, and jagged as a farmer's harrow ! 
" Rough and ready " is a good motto for some occasions. The 
lesson which Campbell, the poet, received from Lord Jeffrey, 
I have no vanity in saying, was rendered useful to me, with 
regard to pulpit style. The great critic observed: "I have 
another fault to charge you with in private, for which I ain 
more angry than all the rest : your timidity, or fastidiousness, 
or some other knavish quality, will not let you give your con- 
ceptions glowing, and bold, and powerful, as they present 
themselves; but you must chasten, refine, and soften them, 
forsooth, till half their nature and grandeur is chiselled away 
from them." Ay ! mark that ! was my reflection. Shall I go 

on chastening, refining, and softening my thoughts and sen- 

4* 



82 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

tences, until they are capable of making as much impression 
upon the mind and conscience of my hearer, as a lump of putty 
flung against a marble statue ! Nay ! rather, henceforth, let me 
be another " electric rod," as the poet hints : 

" A lure for lightning feelings ; and his words 
Felt like things that fall in thunder ! " 

In the mean time, how necessary for such an one to walk 
with God ; to delight in God ; to enjoy private, personal re- 
ligion, and purity of motive, and an entire devotion to His 
will ! to be able to say always, and to constantly appeal unto 
the Lord of hosts, even Jesus Christ, in secret, for the truth 

and reality of it : 

" Thou my all ! 

My theme ! my inspiration ! and my crown 1 

My strength in age ! my rise in low estate ! 

My soul's ambition, pleasure, wealth ! my world ! 

My light in darkness ! and my life in death ! 

My boast through time ! bliss through eternity ! 

My sacrifice ! my God ! — what things are these ! " 

Then, whether the word be clothed with terror or winged 
with love ; whether like the clouds, the lightning, the thunder, 
and falling rain-drops of the predicted storm that warned Noah 
and his family into the ark, and signalized the vengeance that 
swept a careless world away ; or mild and gentle as the tones 
and sweet allurements which won back again into the ark the 
dove of the deluge ; or comforting and assuring as the bow of 
promise to the terror-stricken and desolate ; or sweet and soft 
as the tones of Jesus to the weary and heavy laden, " Come 
unto me, and I will give you rest " — Jesus Christ in all things 
is glorified, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

DEFENDS HIS METHOD OF PREACHING. 

W 

feE stranger believes he could preach without dis- 



turbing anybody, if he could make up his mind, to 
*& P use a figure of Dr. Adam Clarke, to be " harmless as 
a chicken, and fruitless as an oyster ! " This he cannot 
do ; so he and others must bear the consequences, I suppose. 
The state of the people he knows, and the truth most suitable 
to them ; better, certainly, than certain " critics of good preach- 
ing," who come and go at their convenience, and have little 
opportunity of knowing their spiritual wants, and as little dis- 
position to inquire. He converses with hundreds, of them 
every week regarding their religious state. It is plain, there- 
fore, he is a better judge of the treatment which they require. 
Some are sin-sick and in deep distress, and need medicines, such 
as some of my critics, I fear, know not how to prescribe or apply. 
Sin and an angry conscience have inflamed others, and such are 
sadly predisposed to a high degree of irritation, and nothing 
pleases them : even "halfway truths go but halfway down, and 
hard at that," as one has remarked ; so that they fiud it of little 
use to go elsewhere. " Something warm is better than lukewarm," 
they think, but the stranger's " extreme measures " are intoler- 
able. Nevertheless, he thinks the old doctor's motto may not 
be amiss, even in pulpit practice : " Mild diseases require mild 



84 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

medicines, and violent diseases violent remedies." What, doc- 
tor, kill or cure remedies ? " Oh no ! not that ; but a strong- 
disorder needs a strong remedy to cope with it, and, when it 
evidently seeks to kill our patient, Ave must seek to kill it. If 
it beats the remedy, the patient dies — that's all." Ay, but if 
the battle between the two destroy the patient, doctor ? " And 
what of that ? We cannot stand by and see a man die, when 
we honestly believe we have the medicine that will cure him." 
We preachers have the advantage over you physicians, doctor. 
" In what ? " Oh ! only in this, that if we can only persuade 
our spiritual patients to take the remedies we are authorized 
to prescribe, they infallibly cure. 

Now that the matter is before us, you may as well take a 
larger view of our responsibility. There are souls in our midst 
who are entirely in that state which the Lord God has so fear- 
fully and graphically described in the first chapter of the 
prophecy of Isaiah, where he declares that " the whole head is 
sick, and the whole heart faint ; from the sole of the foot, even 
unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and 
bruises and putrifying sores?" 1 Such is the state of many a 
poor sinner's soul in our midst. And some of them, alas ! by 
their own confession, are " past feeling." We know the truth, 
however, that is likely to make them feel ; but I assure you, 
my friends, it requires courage here to apply it as faithfully 
and plentifully as these awful cases demand. Salt will make a 
w r ound smart. Certain truths are like salt ; and they need not 
only to be sprinkled upon the corrupt sinner, but rubbed into 
his wounds. Satan has prepared such to be a burnt offering in 
hell. He only waits permission to carry them off, which has 
not yet been given ; because — and blessed be God for the 



DEFENDS HIS METHOD OF PREACHING. 85 

grace ! — it has not been said of these, as of the house of Eli, 
" The iniquity shall not be purged icith sacrifice nor offering nor 
every But, as it is written, " Thou shalt make his soul an 
offering for sin" that is, Jesus. All are commanded to pre- 
sent their bodies and souls as " living sacrifice to God, holy 
and acceptable." These are neither holy nor acceptable, but 
we are not without hope they may be. If " a holy priesthood" 
are we not called " to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God, by 
Jesus Christ?" We would offer these poor sinners to God, 
in the name of the great " sin offering " once offered. 

Ay, but repentance and faith in Christ are demanded in the 
Gospel, without which the offer of them to God will meet with 
a sure rejection. They must be made to see and to feel their 
wretched condition. No timid application of truth is likely 
to effect this ; no, nor every, or any sort of truth. I was 
struck the other clay with that command of God in Lev. i. 1 3 : 
" And every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with 
salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy 
God to be lacking from thy meat-offering : ivith all thine offerings 
thou shalt offer salt." Ay ! I thought, truth is the salt with 
which, in our dispensation, these sinners must be sprinkled, 
ere we presume to offer them for acceptance upon God's altar, 
even Jesus Christ. And knowing well the quality of the 
salt required, I commenced the work of sprinkling that 
corruption with it ; ay, and to rub it in, until the preacher 
sweat again. It is this, be it known unto you, that has caused 
most of all the trouble — " this muss," as some are pleased to 
call it ! 

And here let me tell you that it is to a deficiency of this 
salt, or the want of a courageous and laborious application of 



86 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

it to the diseased souls of sinners, we may trace the superficial 
character of some revivals, and their transitory effects. Too 
frequently the wounds made by sin have been closed prema- 
turely, without having been properly laid open again by " the 
sword of the Sprit." Those " wounds, bruises, and putrefying 
sores " have been closed, and bound up too soon. The oil 
has been applied before the salt, or without. Unless such 
sores are thoroughly opened in the work of true repentance, 
and penetrated to the lowest depths by this salt — the living, 
searching, penetrating truth of God — they will fester and be- 
come bad again, or worse than ever. May God help us to 
apply the salt faithfully and unsparingly, 

" Let men exclaim, or fiends repine ! " 

My figures may not be altogether agreeable to some per- 
sons of refinement and taste ; I cannot help it ; they are 
scriptural, and I am not ashamed of them, no more than I am 
of the Gospel of Christ, which offers a remedy for every wound 
that sin has made. 

A caution just here. Do not be alarmed for the "babes in 
Christ." A little salt of truth will do them no harm; better 
get used to it in the beginning ; it will make them healthy and 
vigorous, and less susceptible of evil influences. It is hinted 
in Ezek. xvi. 4, that new-born children were rubbed with salt, 
which made them, doubtless, renew the cry with which they 
came into the world ; nevertheless, it was doubtless designed 
the better to prepare them for their new mode of existence. We 
must salt these babes in Christ, though we have a cry for it — 
even at the risk of some friends supposing them quite spoiled 
of all good, and all but driven out of their senses. They will 



DEFENDS HIS METHOD OF PREACHING. 87 

make all the better Christians by-and-by. It is for the want 
of this timely and plentiful application of the salt of truth that 
so many grow up to be so puny and delicate that they are 
good for nothing in the church, and cannot bear pulpit faith- 
fulness. * 

Besides, many are not only " in the gall of bitterness and 
bonds of iniquity," but are bitter against Christians. They 
resemble the fountains of Jericho, which required sweetening ; 
but nobody knew how to go about it till the prophet Elisha 
came along. All complained that the waters were not fit to 
drink. The prophet required a new vessel, just as the stranger 
among you needed a new sermon, and a new method of appli- 
cation for the occasion ! The prophet put salt in the new ves- 
sel, went to the springs, and cast into them the salt ; when, I 
suppose, many were ready to exclaim, " The water is brackish 
and bitter enough already, without adding salt to it ; why 
apply a remedy so contrary to the effect which we desire to 
have produced?" Possibly we may imagine Elisha's reply: 
" That the finger of God may be seen ! Nothing short of the 
miraculous power of God can heal these waters ; and if they 
are healed by casting into them this salt, the miracle will be 
the more evident to every one." So in went the salt, and- 
a declaration came forth from heaven : " Thus saith the 
Lord, I have healed these waters ; " and the historian bore 
record, " So the waters were healed unto this dayP (2 Kings ii. 
19, 20.) We must not be sparing of the salt in question, 
although at first it may seem to increase the opposition of 
sinners. 

Jesus says of us, " Ye are the salt of the earth ; not the 
honey of the earth I What a relief had he said so, and given 



88 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

us instruction how to become so ! How much persecution it 
had saved us ! for such honied lips would have received many 
kisses from the world ! Kisses instead of hisses, praise instead 
of blows, and smiles in the place of frowns ! Agreeable ex- 
change ! Ay, but our old corrupt world needs the salt to keep 
it from putrefying ! And as for the salt itself, neither hisses, 
blows, nor frowns can affect its qualities, though I would not 
vouch as much for the kisses ! Salt may waste itself in melt- 
ing, as well as sugar. Both the church and the world have 
wounds to be healed, and there is much " proud flesh" to be 
reduced and removed. But the salt that makes it smart may 
bring smarting to the Salter ! 

Again our Lord says, " Ye are the light of the loorld" — 
not the darkness of the world ! Had it been so, the followers 
of Jesus had escaped many a blow and much sorrow. He 
hinted as much when he said, " He that doeth evil hateth the 
light " — ay ! and the light-gicers also ! 

That was a shrewd remark of one, " Some men live by their 
sins as the mechanic by his trade." It is a rule with 
such to hate the light ; but policy may restrain or dictate an 
ingenious method of venting the hatred, without exposing the 
■cause, or that even such hatred exists. I have noticed this, 
and marvelled at the simplicity of some in allowing such credit 
for what they did not possess. It sometimes, however, takes 
the form of open skepticism. If lacking in brains or informa- 
tion, such become very irritable and offensive when closely 
pressed. It requires much genius to defend themselves 
from the simple but convincing evidences of Christianity, 
and the strokes of conscience as well. The state of both is 
pitiable. 



DEFENDS* HIS METHOD OF PREACHIXO. 89 

A good conscience needs no alliance with bad principles. 
A holy life needs no such backers. A garland of thistles is 
a poor exchange for a wreath of flowers. Guilt and uneasi- 
ness are inseparable, and in the end wretchedness and anguish ; 
not so much from the actions of others as from its own reflec- 
tions. Sin provides for its own punishment, which always 
proceeds from the sinner himself. There is no point of truth 
more clearly supported by Scripture than this. He spoke feel- 
ingly and truly who said there is no possibility of reasoning 
ourselves out of our own experience, or of laughing down 
a principle woven so closely into the make and frame of our 
natures. "Reason and conscience," he added, "put forth their 
dictates concerning virtue and vice, and they are plain and 
perfectly intelligible ; and no one can do violence to them 
without incurring discomposing and afflicting thoughts; just 
as a wound will raise a smart in the flesh that receives it. Re- 
pentance and pardon, through faith in Christ, heal the 
wound ; and when once healed, such thoughts and reflections 
pass awaijP 

Let the awakened sinner know that it is only that 
which satisfied eternal justice on Calvary, can satisfy that 
awakened conscience in his breast ! The law of God could 
not be appeased until it had nailed the Lawgiver to the tree ; 
nor can the law-breaker's conscience be pacified until faith 
unites it to the great atonement for the sins of the world. 
Rest assured of this, O thou troubled sinner! Herb, nor 
fruit, nor leaf was found- in all the garden of Eden that 
could heal the wound made by sin in the conscience of Adam. 
Nor does there grow in all the gardens of morality, nor 
upon all the commons of infidelity, any remedy for a wounded 



90 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

conscience. That, awakened man ! which healed mine 
was found growing near the cross, and yet so near the hand 
of faith that it could be reached. It was my sovereign 
remedy, and effected a complete cure. Glory be to God! 
Amen. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



A BOW TO THE CRITICS. 




IGN-REQUIRERS and wisdom-seekers were St. Paul's 
' annoyers. "For the Jews require a sign, and the 
Greeks seek after wisdom ; " — yet, he went on preach- 
ing " Christ crucified," though a stumbling-block to one 
class, and foolishness to the other. So he tells us. Im- 
mediately follow those very strong and startling expressions, 
" Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the 
weakness of God is stronger than men " — in defence of the 
wisdom of God, in employing means apparently so weak for 
the accomplishment of effects so mighty as were witnessed. 
The allusion is glanced at with modesty and deference, yet not 
altogether without cause. The stranger is happy in being 
allowed of God to "preach Christ crucified' 1 '' also, though not 
without weakness and various imperfections. The effects must 
speak for themselves. The wisdom of this world, which 
glories in its instrumentalities, would have chosen differently, 
doubtless. But God has said, " My glory will not I give to 
another.'''' Twice does he say so by the same prophet. He 
will give us almost anything else, rather than his glory — his 
love, his beauty, his holiness, his eternity — will even share his 
heaven with us; but he will not part with his glory. God 
secures his own glory in choosing " weak things " to confound 



92 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

the might}' ; and " things which are despised, and things 
ivhich are not, to bring to nought the things that are? An- 
other reason for this choice, is plainly declared in the follow- 
ing verse, " That no flesh should glory in his presence." (1 
Cor. i. 27, 28.) These are comforting facts to the weak and 
hnmble. 

But to the point. The lesson was profitable. My am- 
bition, however, runs not in that direction ; at least not so 
high, and for widely different purposes. This, when I explain, 
may throw light upon those pauses, when, instead of ad- 
vancing upon the summits of successive climaxes, " where 
eloquence might afford to thunder among the Alps of thought," 
the intellect expends its strength in the vale, "among the 
humblest themes." "When addressing my fellow-men upon 
the concerns of the soul, I desire three things : First, to 
speak so as to be perfectly understood by every one. Second, 
to make the people feel that which they understand ; and 
thirdly, to persuade them to embrace heartily that which they 
know and feel to be truth, with regard to their duty to God, 
to themselves, and to one another. I have no time for 
other work, much less for climbing away up there ; lest my 
God should put. it to me as he did to Elijah on Horeb, 
" What doest thou here, Elijah I " Having less excuse than 
the prophet, I might not come off so well ! 

My apology, to another is this — for I always wish to stand 
well with my hearers, if possible : Had I " written and read" 
my discourses, since my arrival in the country, my credit for 
correctness and elegance might, perhaps, have approached 
nearer to your standard of excellence. But if at the loss of 
effectiveness, the church of God would not have been much the 



A BOW TO THE CRITICS. 93 

gamer; besides loss of credit with the angels, by depriving 
them of a portion of their usual joy over repenting sinners, 
which I would not like to do. (Luke xv. 10.) A moment or 
two since, I used that safe little word, " perhaps" and for a 
reason. My temperament, which is ardent, would, most likely, 
have hurried my thoughts and language off the track and over 
those paper fences — like those sheep the other day, which at a 
bound possessed themselves of a better pasturage than the fences 
indicated ! or, like a whole herd of thirsty deer in the Western 
world, rushing across the wilderness like a whirlwind, attracted 
by the voice of many waters from the far away cataract to 
windward ! When the wind blows from Calvary, the headlong 
soul which God has lodged within me rushes forth, with all its 
affections and powers, over all the hedges and ditches of rhetor- 
ical precision and propriety, to be there, where I have been 
many a time ; where twenty sentences, spoken under the influ- 
ences of the cross, have done more to bless and to save, than 
scores and hundreds of them, read or spoken far off from that 
great central point of power and salvation ; — where, and oh ! 
how often, have I stood in adoring wonder, beholding the effect 
of Jesus set forth and crucified for the sins of the world; — 
and how a view of that atoning death has brought life and sal- 
vation where all was death before ; — and many a saved sinner's 
cheeks bathed in tears — vividly illustrating those sweet verses 
once more : 



" I saw one hanging on the tree 
In agonies and blood, 
Who fix'd his languid eyes on me, 
As near his cross I stood. 
4* 



94 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

" Sure never till my latest breath 
Will I forget that look ; 
He seem'd to charge me with his death, 
Though not a word he spoke. 

u My conscience felt and own'd the guilt, 
And plunged me in despair ; 
I saw my sins his blood had spilt, 
And help'd to nail him there. 

." Alas ! I knew not what I did, 
But now my tears are vain ; 
Where shall my trembling soul be hid ? 
For I the Lord have slain. 

" A second look he gave, which said, 
I freely all forgive ; 
This blood is for thy ransom paid ; 
I die that thou may'st live. 

" Thus, while his death my sin displays 
In all its blackest hue, 
(Such is the mystery of grace,) 
It seals my pardon too. 

" With pleasing grief and mournful joy 
My spirit now is fill'd, 
That I should such a life destroy, 
Tet live by him I kill'd." 

Oh, but " Christ crucified " is a wonderful theme ! There 
is nothing like it for melting, moving, swaying, persuading, 
winning a congregation. Other things may move and melt a 
little ; but, for deep and permanent effect, nothing can equal 



A BOW TO THE CRITICS. 95 

the scenes of Calvary — and so capable are they of being seen 
from almost innumerable positions, and under such a variety 
of lights ! It is a pity, owing somewhat to a variety of mat- 
ters which some suppose have a claim upon the pulpit, that 
these things should be preached so sparingly ; surely, at least, 
on every sacramental occasion. And yet, on such occasions, I 
have listened to sermons from which could not be gathered, 
from first to last, a single intimation that the " Last SujJper " 
was to be celebrated at the close — the white cloth covering 
" the communion service " and sacred memorials, being the only 
remembrancer. It is as if some were tempted to think that 
u Christ crucified " would, like other themes, " wear out,' 1 and 
become insipid and ineffectual by frequent repetition. This 
cannot be ; the nature of the subject entirely forbids it. Had 
such but stood beside the stranger^ the other day, and wit- 
nessed the effect upon a weeping multitude, the unworthy 
thought would have been banished from the mind. Those 
unmistakable symptoms of penitential grief and despair which 
played over that panorama of upturned faces ; the dawnings 
of hope coming out tremblingly upon those wet cheeks, while 
Christ was set forth crucified before their eyes, for their sins, 
even for theirs ; and the sunshine of joy beaming amid their 
tears, as they believed ; — oh ! how all this proved how all-power- 
ful are the doctrines of the Cross to awaken the most profound 
emotions of which the human heart is capable ! I trust God 
will enable me to hold up the great atoning sacrifice oftener 
than ever before my congregations. Amen. 

This is a digression, which my " critical friends " will ex- 
cuse. But to return to subjects in question. Preachers differ 
in their style. It is well, as they have a great variety of 



96 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

heai'ers-, of whom, even in Christian countries, they may well 
say, with Paul, " / am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the 
barbarians ; both to the wise and to the unwise" We have our 

share, I reckon, in our congregations at ; persons, too, 

who are well versed in the rules of oratory, and acute in de- 
tecting blemishes, and, to do them justice, appreciative of any 
beauties akin to the exalted art. I mean no offence ; but I 
have had my share of such hearers as the venerable Boston 
had to complain of, some of whom he compared to sponges, 
that suck up everything, good or indifferent, without profit ; 
some to sand-glasses or hour-glasses — what they receive in one 
ear goes out at the other ; and some hearers be likened to 
strainers, which let all the good pass, retaining only unpalat- 
able substances and other dregs, which they exhibit, as oppor- 
tunities serve, as proofs of their acuteness and usefulness ; 
others to riddles or sieves — riddles, which hold the chaff and 
fragments of straw only, letting all the noble grain pass 
through — sieves, which retain the husks, bran, and other coarse 
substances, while the flour escapes from them. If any of my 
present hearers can make the application, some good may 
come of it; but a preacher who offers such hearers nothing in 
their way, should hardly be classed among us ordinary mor- 
tals. 

******* 

" A candle is no star." 

1. Admitted: the difference between them is vast, indeed! 
but not infinite — for a star has a limit both as to bulk and ca- 
pacity of radiation, as well as a candle ! But if a candle be 
no star, neither can a star become a candle. Each is good in 



A BOW TO THE CRITICS. 97 

its place ; and many think a candle is often more convenient 
and useful than a star ! We do not despise the humble candle, 
though it cannot appear so magnificent as a star ; for there are 
circumstances, frequently, when the humble candle is more 
available and necessary than the brightest star that circles 
round the sun ! — more cheerful and useful, ay, and safer withal 
as a guide in dark and unsafe places, and a more reliable aid 
than a star in finding that which may have been lost or mislaid. 

2." There are stars in the firmament of the church, such as 
are called great and magnificent preachers ; and there are can- 
dles also — plain, humble, useful preachers ; not so brilliant, in- 
deed, nor so elevated and unapproachable as the stars ; but 
they may have what the stars have not — heat as well as light I 
And if work — extra work — is to be done at late hours, and 
valuables in peril of being lost, or not available in the church's 
hour of need, those candles may accomplish what stars would 
never condescend to do ! Men have lost their lives, or gone 
fearfully and perilously astray, by following the stars — like him 
who, while gazing up at the stars, fell into the ditch ; while he 
who allowed himself to be guided by a plain candle, burning 
in a very humble lantern, passed safely on, though, maybe, 
he stopped long enough to help the star-gazer out of the ditch ! 
The day of judgment may declare that such humble and de- 
spised " candles " have saved more from falling into hell, and 
guided more souls to heaven, than the brightest " stars." Do 
you understand me ? 

3. Besides, sir, some nights are starless, and a humble 
light, even in the form of a " candle " in an unpretending lan- 
tern, is not to be despised. The lantern may not be fashioned 
after the most approved model or fashionable pattern ; never- 



98 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

tlieless, if it give sufficient light to show the right path, detect 
the slough or the peril, who but a fool or a thief would despise 
it ! It may even emit a light all the more honest and faithful 
from its unseemly crevices! And so long as it hangs together, 
and a "candle" is able to burn within it, it is never likely to 
become a dark lantern, nor to acquire the art of a magic lan- 
tern, to give undue magnitude and coloring to tilings ; — plain, 
honest, faithful, pretensionless, old-fashioned lantern! — like 
some preachers I know of — nor are they few in number — de- 
voted, common-sense, ever-to-be-depended-upon servants of 
God and his church — lights, though little accounted of by the 
rich and the great, which have guided many wandering feet 
into " the path of life," and along it into glory and eternal 
life! 

4. So much about the " lantern ; " and now a few more sen- 
tences in behalf of " the candle that is no star." The Psalmist 
says, " Thou wilt light my candle; the Lord my God will en- 
lighten my darkness." And so he did, doubtless, by which, as 
he soon after remarked, he was able to "run through a troop, 
and leap over a wall / " AVho can say that this candle has not 
been lighted by the living God to show you your peril? to 
apprise you of a startling nearness to the brink of the pit that 
is bottomless, toward which you have been approaching in the 
dark ? Think of that ! For you may find it to have been fact 
when you reach eternity. 

5. Solomon named the spirit of man the candle of the Lord 
— a candle which he himself lights up by his Spirit, by which 
he searches the souls of others, and by which conscience is 
assisted to do its office. Nor did Job despise the figure of a 
candle, when speaking of the Lord's dealings with him : " When 



A BOW TO THE CEITICS. 99 

his candle skirted upon my head, and when by his light I toalked 
through darkness." And does not God himself predict that 
lie would " search Jerusalem," not with " stars," but with 
"candles" (Zeph. i. 12), in order that he might "punish the 
men that are settled on their lees ; that say in their heart, The 
Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil" P Jesus compares 
the gifts and graces of the Spirit, and the manner in which he 
would have them exhibited, to a lighted candle in a candlestick, 
giving light unto all that are in the house (Mark v. 15). And 
is it not written of one of the plagues of spiritual Babylon, 
" the light of a candle shall no more shine at all in thee " ? (Rev. 
xviii. 23.) You perceive, then, I have no reason to be ashamed 
of your figure — seeing it is one of honor, selected by the Lord 
himself, ages before you were born ! 



CHAPTER XV. 

DEALING WITH UNEASY CONSCIENCES. 

'Wfr ^ Bible ! It is not only "a singular book," my " un- 
-r!^l easy friend" but a wonderful book ! Turn which way 

^* J? P you will, whether in criticising or sinning, and you may 
well say, " It is sure to have a catch upon one ! " Just so ! And 
you are not the first discoverer of that fact, by millions. Well 
for you that you have made the discovery within the boundaries 
of time, where mistakes may be rectified. The laws, — " deci- 
sions and influences" (if you will) — of the Bible, like the uni- 
versal law of gravitation, take hold on everything, act upon 
everything. There is no escaping. What must they be in 
eternity ! The vindication there of these will be either terrible 
or glorious. In this life you may determine which it shall be 
in the life to come. 

Indeed, sir, you can hardly accent a sentence or syllable on 
the subject of religion and morals, without being beholden to 
the Bible for part of it, or some word to help you out. It 
may show, also, how intimately all our religious impressions 
are interwoven with its language. And now, if I may refer 
again to the " candle and the star," in my remarks this forenoon, 
suffer the word of exhortation. Despise not the humble " can- 
dle," for it may have been lighted by the breath of heaven for 
this very purpose : either to search thy heart, or to guide thee 



DEALING WITH UNEASY CONSCIENCES. 101 

through the darkness. Happy for thee, if, like Abijah of old, 
there is found in thee " some good thing toward the Lord God 
of Israel.' 1 '' Amen. 

Upon one point I agree with you, and heartily detest the 
spirit of the thing, as much as you possibly can do ; while I 
pity the man who allows himself, for the sake of a fat salary, 
and an easy, honorable position, to be so necessitated. It was 
so in the days of the devoted Baxter. "The minister that 
would stand as an adorned idol, that hurts nobody, touches no 
sores. Harmless as the notes of an organ, or a tinkling cym- 
bal, that will tickle the fancy, and make divine worship a kind 
of religious stage-playing, that is the minister for some."' Do 
you know of many or any of our preachers so circumstanced ? 
If so, you will agree with me, they are of all men most inex- 
cusable; such is the absolute nature of our itineracy, that in 
the short space of a couple of years or so they are sure to be 
removed, in accordance with discipline, into another field of 
labor. I would express a similar hope regarding the ministers 
of most other denominations in the land. 

But how is it that, while you cannot behold such a character 
without adding to your '' doubts regarding the truth of religion 
itself," you are so dissatisfied with a humble preacher who takes 
exactly the opposite course ? — who, instead of tickling the fancy 
with straws, attacks the conscience, and strikes both hard and 
true, to the laying open of old sores, which ought to have been 
healed and well years ago, if the proper remedies had been 
applied ? But the rub may be there ; for your own old sore3 
may have been laid open also. How is it? By the way, per- 
ceive you not your own inconsistency ? A } 7 oung man remarked 
to his companion on retiring from hearing a heartless and care- 



102 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

less preacher : " If that man believes religion to be a reality, is 
not his spirit and manner disgusting ? " Doubtless you would 
have agreed with him. But, now that religion is set forth as a 
glorious and yet terrible reality, the enthusiasm of the preacher 
would lead you to doubt. Allow me to commend you to the 
work of self-examination. 

The "inference" is common among those who have taken a 
pique against Christians ; and so fallacious is it, that I wonder 
a person of your understanding should once name it — that all 
" the brotherhood" deserve to lose the confidence of a commu- 
nity, because two or three have suffered righteously that calam- 
ity. As much as to say, because a brace of rogues have been 
detected at Yorkvillc, the entire population should fall under 
suspicion. If you are contented to drop your inference, so am 
I. And why suppose that Christians stand as much in dread 
of hell as most of their unprofessing neighbors? Suppose 
they do, and are trying faithfully to live so as to keep out of 
it, are they to be despised for that ? Sincerity is pretty evident, 
is it not? They are commanded in Scripture to fear Him who 
has power to cast into hell. 

Allow me to commend to your consideration that question 
proposed many years ago by the pious Pascal : "Which, I pray 
you, has most cause to be afraid of hell — one that is under 
ignorance whether there be a hell or not, or another who is 
certainly persuaded there is a hell, but is encouraged to hope 
that he shall be delivered from having his part in it ? " What 
reply is rife through this 'audience ? I need not declare what 
your countenances so evidently proclaim. What thinkest thou ? 
Come, dear sir, let me persuade you to " make your own call- 
ing and election sure ! " It is written, " Every man shall bear 



DEALING WITH UNEASY CONSCIENCES. 103 

his own burden" Cease, then, to load innocent men with 
other people's sins. " Judge not, that ye be not judged" is a 
caution our Lord thought proper to inculcate. It contains a 
hint sufficient to make the uncharitable heart tremble. 

Another will please give ear. All you have said only shows 
that there esq promises in the Bible, as well as threatening and 
that you prefer the former to the latter. And who would not ? 
Nor would I deprive you of any comfort therefrom, if you do 
really believe in your conscience that they apply to yourself, 
that you are just such a character as a holy and righteous God 
would lavish such promises upon. But if you have reason, 
rather, to suspect that his threatenings have a fitter application, 
then you are but befooling your own soul by "catching" at 
things which do not belong to you, and never can, unless you 
become a repenting and believing sinner. Remember, I am not 
charging you with guilt, but merely, offering you a few friendly 
hints, which may be of eternal advantage. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

RUNNING FIRE. 

^y ERY true, sir. It is possible, as one observed, to 
(?lf choose " a merry way to misery," by winch he meant 
an easy way to hell — an inexpensive way to perdi- 
tion ; easy on the purse, but hard on the conscience ; sometimes 
hard on both. It never has seemed to me either sound policy 
or good economy to allow the fear of man to stifle the fear of 
God ; or " to part with a good conscience to save the feelings, 
the flesh, or the purse ; to leap, as it we*e, into hell, to avoid 
the foul breath of the scorner." A very foolish and expensive 
line of business, that ! Burns could tell you 

"An Atheist's laugh's a poor exchange 
For Deity offended." 

Ay, or the laugh of any other thoughtless sinner. Ponder 
these things. 

It is no secret, just now, and needs no prophet to declare 
the end of such men ; that some are trying to drink away 
their religious convictions ; some to laugh them away, and play 
them away, and sin them away ; but if rooted fast in their con- 
science, they may not succeed in any way. It is said the birds 
of Xorway are of swifter wing than the birds of other nations 
which have longer seasons and number more hours in their 
day. Their seasons are short, and days short, all passing so 



RUNNING FIEE. 105 

swiftly away that tliey know by instinct that swiftness of 
wing is a necessity in all their undertakings to provide foT 
themselves and for their young. It is thus with the sinners of 
this land. Seasons of mercy, the day of grace, and opportu- 
nities to be saved, are headlong, and of short duration. Sin- 
ners seem aware of it, and, therefore, are swifter and more 
determined in the race of folly than those of other natious. 
One would think the contrary ought to be expected, and that 
the rapidity of their motions should be on the side of religion 
in every good word and work. 

My religion and zeal they must consider frail affairs, if they 
were to be disturbed by those squibs. The smith needs a hand 
at the bellows, that his fire may burn with an intenser flame ; 
and a dash of dirty water is a help, which another, less experi- 
enced, would consider a hindrance. These blasts of contradic- 
tions only fan the flame of zeal. When God answered by fire 
on Carmcl, the tivelve barrels of water could not extinguish the 
flames that arose from an altar there. If this fire does not 
awaken repentings within them, nor convert, nor purify, they 
may become as stubble before it, and without ability to 
" deliver themselves from the power of the flames ." (Isa. xlvii. 
14.) Oh ! that it may be otherwise ! By the way, have you 
forgotten that one of the sacred writers was made " the song 
of the drunkard, " ? What Satan cannot frown down, nor 
fling down, he tries to sing down. Let them sing. Our 
* M songs of Zion " have twenty hearers to their one. 

Again, know you not that it is written, " The Lord is not 
slack "? No, neither as regards the fulfilment of His promises 
nor in the execution of his threatenings. That he is " long-suf- 
fering " is plainly admitted in the same scripture. How foul 

5* 



106 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

to call that slackness, which denotes an effect of merer/ upon the 
motions of justice ! In the passage alluded to, the true cause is 
given: " JYot willing that any should perish, but that all should 
come to repentance." (2 Peter iii. 9.) A singular intimation, 
that, if none eternally perish, or cannot, by any possibility ! 

It is best for all -of us that justice moves at a leaden pace, 
as if its feet were lead, while mercy flies on wings to save. But 
for this, such is the natural tardiness and enmity of man, none 
could be saved. " Mercy, triumphing over justice, is a tree of 
life to a world of sinners." But it is a sad sight to see men 
plucking death from this tree of life. Ay, and descending into 
hell by its roots, rather than ascend into heaven by its top. 
Going down to Hell by the same means that saints ascend into 
heaven. Making the plea of Christ's dying, an excuse for 
their sinning. God's long-suffering a reason for their long 
impenitency. The mercy of Heaven, the cause of their misery 
in hell. Were there no other argument for a devil that helps 
men to sin, and to direct them the nearest way to hell, these 
facts would be to me quite convincing. For, although I fully 
believe in the inherent wickedness of the human heart, I could 
hardly conceive how otherwise men could be so forsaken of 
their understanding and conscience, or how these could so lose 
the control of them. Ah ! sir, a sweeter flower than that of 
divine mercy never blossomed beneath " the sun of righteous- 
ness'''' ! It is a honey-flower, for all of a repenting or heaven- 
born nature. But alas ! vast numbers, wasp-like, suck poison 
out of it, or that which, by some sort of infernal chemistry 
(for the want of a better word), is converted into moral poison. 

However, and a sad thought it is, every finally impenitent 
sinner finds out at last that God is just, as well as merciful. 



. BUNKING FIRE. 107 

Ho gives time for repentance, and " many a second thought." 
But when mercy, freely offered, with precious time to accept, 
become but drugs, God relieves them of both, and lets them 
have justice and eternity instead ; and, generally at an unexpect- 
ed hour, when they are neither aware of nor willing for such 
a change. Ah ! how many of my hearers of past years have 
been arrested by death, and posted off with very little cere- 
mony to the scenes of judgment; some of them, alas! like 
that active business-man, who, feeling his departure to be una- 
voidable, exclaimed to his physician, " Doctor, I have made 
every preparation for living, and now I must die, though utterly 
unprepared for it." Such cases are by no means rare, and sad, 
sad scenes they are. Beware, sir, that death does not find you 
in a similar situation. 

God is represented in the Book of Psalms as " whetting 
his sioord, bending his bow, and preparing his arrows on the 
string, against the face of them " — sinners who trifle with his 
threatenings. And also, as preparing for them " the instru- 
ments of death.'''' Having called upon them in vain to seek 
wisdom upon earth, he sends them to learn it in hell. I was 
struck with the following remark : lt God may say of some of 
you very soon, ' Seeing they will not be wise upon earth, let 
them learn to be wise in hell, and let eternal torments teach 
them.' " Terrible thought ! It must come to that, I suppose, 
with all sinners who are finally sent from earth to perdition. 
In this yon may have a glimpse how being may be continued, 
and not well-being. The distinction is evident, but the terrible 
demonstrations of it can only be fully known 

" In the great dungeons of the unforgiven." 



108 ARROWS FROM MY QCTYER. 

Be wise in time. The earth, as a Welsh preacher strik- 
ingly observed, is emptying its inhabitants into hell very fast. 
Ay, and the destroying angel is passing over this land with 
rapid strides ; and woe be to you when he stops at your door and 
finds you unmarked, and unprotected by the blood of the Pass- 
over Lamb. Beware of presumption. It sends more sinners 
to hell than despair. " God is merciful ! God is merciful ! " 
shouted a few young converts in the ear of a distressed and 
despairing young man. " Yes," said he, " God is merciful, but 
.he is also just, and his justice will cut me down." He came 
very near blowing his brains out, but God interposed and saved 
him. He preached the Gospel with great power afterward, 
and is now, I trust, in Paradise. His case, perilous as it was, 
was hardly so desperate as that of him who considers God's 
long-suffering " slackness" and " the goodness of God" designed 
" to lead " him " to repentance" as an argument for presump 
tion to encourage him in impenitence. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



TO ANOTHER REVIEWING. 



^ $ET was a happy time, to me and many ; but not entirely 
^Vp» free from the accompaniments of human frailties, I 

^|K^} confess ! Extemporaneous preaching seems peculiarly 
liable to them ; especially if the mind of the preacher be sus- 
ceptible of emotion from what he may behold transpiring in 
the audience at the moment. A little more self-command 
would have been of advantage. It so happens, that the em- 
ployments and scenes of the day usually influence my preaching 
at night — whether in reading, writing, answering letters, or 
excursionizing — giving a hue and a coloring to my style in the 
pulpit, or on the platform. There are some minds which re- 
semble the transparent surface of a lake, where the sun, the 
moon, or stars may mirror themselves ; and the clouds — sunny 
or thunderous; the mountains too, and rocks and cliffs, and 
trees ; the eagle and the sparrow, raindrops, sunbeams, and 
waterfall! A piece of poetry, written in 1825, caused that 
movement of the fancy — for poetry, like romance, is bewitching. 
The poetry I did not repeat, because I could not, but the sen- 
timents came forth in a state of transposition ! Fancy fur- 
nished thus with wings, excursionized ; yet not, I trust, regard- 
less of Mrs. Osgood's " rule of caution " : 



110 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

" Let fancy fly her fairy kite, 

And light with wit its wing-, dear ; 
But oh! lest it go out of sight, 
Bid reason hold the string, dear ! 

"For, soaring where the poet's heaven 
"With starry gems is spangled, 
It might, by folly's zephyr driven, 
In moonshine get entangled ! " 

That little particle "so," what an immensity of meaning 
there is in it ! Jesus did not attempt to describe it. Neither 
did John, who recorded it. And it may well stand over as the 
theme of eternity ! " God so loved the world, as to give his 
only begotten son, that" etc. No man, attempting to ponder 
this text for the pulpit, that does not feel his imagination put 
under an arrest by " so loved." And it is only when under 
the excitement and warmth of public speaking, he is bold 
enough to attempt its expansion ! Oh ! how poor and weak 
the richest imagery, or strongest figures of comparison ! springs, 
brooks, lakes, rivers, oceans — blades of grass, foliage of sum- 
mer trees, flowers, shrubs, forests — sun and moon and stars — 
immensity — all that takes the name of water, vegetable matter, 
space, all fall infinitely short, and the mind, like the dove of 
the deluge, is glad to return to the Ark — to Jesus, the gift of 
the Father's love, and softly and humbly say to all around — 



; Could we with ink the ocean fill, 

Was the whole earth of parchment made, 
Was every single stick a quill, 

Was every man a scribe by trade ; 



TO ANOTHER REVIEWING. Ill 

To write the love of God alone, 

"Would drain the ocean dry, 
Nor would the scroll contain the whole, 

Though stretclr d from pole to sky ! " 

And, oh ! how sweet to rest and triumph there ! and sing — 

'' A way he is to lost ones that have strayed ; 

A robe he is to such as naked be ; 
If any hungry, to all such he is bread ; 

Is any weak, in Him how strong is he ! 
To him that's dead he's life, to sick men health ; 
Eyes to the blind, and to the poor man wealth." 

I rested in Jesus at last, did I not ! And when there, found 
my heart-breaking, heart-softening argument! And if your 
heart was not melted, it was of more solid metal, likely, than 
the rest — that is all ! If all the angels of heaven had lent 
their assistance in those profundities and altitudes of compari- 
son, we had still been infinitely short ! " Thanks be unto God 
for the unspeakable gift" will, most likely, be the exclama- 
tion of eternity ! the climax of our contemplations of it — the 
chorus of our songs ! 

The entire fifty-third chapter of Isaiah I commend to your 
attention. It is impossible you can apply it to any other that 
ever existed upon the earth than Jesus Christ. One in Ger- 
many, after quoting " The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity 
of us all" " The chastisement of our peace was upon him" 
thanked God that such was the case ! adding that otherwise 
he could not have made room for the conviction in his heart 
that his sins would not be imputed to him, even if an angel 
from heaven had brought him the intelligence, unless, at the 



112 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

same time, he had been told what had become of the sins thua 
taken from him; that nothing here below could be plainer to 
him than this, that his blood-red sins could not be pardoned 
arbitrarily, or overlooked, or unnoticed as trifles of no account. 
Jf so, how could he any longer believe in a just and holy 
God ? But when told in the Gospel, not only of his misdeeds, 
but how they were transferred to him who appeared in his 
place, even " the Lamb of God that taketh aivay the sins of the 
world " — even his sins — and thus beholding such an interven- 
tion, he could no longer doubt, but was enabled sensibly to grasp 
the legal ground of his absolution. " It is for my sins which 
he atones, and my debt which he liquidates ; " and thus he 
could throw himself rejoicing into the arms of everlasting 
mercy ! 

That " the Word ivas made flesh and dwelt among us — and 
the Word was with God, and the Word was God " — is a " mar- 
vel " to you, I marvel not ! it has been so to the greatest minds 
of all ages. Junius, centuries ago, w r as reclaimed from athe- 
ism by the same divine declaration. lie tells us that the New 
Testament lay open in his study, upon which he carelessly 
turned his eye, and found himself arrested by the strange 
majesty and profound mystery of John i. 1-14, and that by 
further meditation and inquiry, it led to his conversion ! St. 
Paul exclaims, " Great is the mystery of godliness, God mani- 
fest in the flesh — seen of angels, 1 '' etc. A " marvel " indeed, 
the more you consider it; for, as godly Flavel observed, if w r e 
beheld the sun to fall from his sphere, and to become a wan- 
dering atom, or an angel turned out of heaven, and converted 
into a fly or a worm, the abasement would not equal the 
incarnation of the Son of God, when he took upon him our 



TO ANOTHER REVIEWING. 113 

nature, became a man, and obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross! 

To comprehend this great mystery is one thing, to believe 
it is another. A nutshell may sooner contain all the water of 
the sea than your intellect comprehend this amazing fact. 
Nor is it any disparagement to your intellect. A Trinity in 
Unity, and a God manifest in the flesh, would require a Doctor 
Angelicus from heaven ! The mysterious union of your own 
spirit with your body — if you will allow yourself time to think 
closely — you will find it sufficiently incomprehensible to 
master your "intellectual capacity," let alone the profound 
doctrine of the Holy Trinity. This mystery of your own 
existence you will find quite as inaccessible to your under- 
standing, I fancy, as the sublime declaration, " In the 
beginning was the Word, and the Word tuas with God, and the 
Word was God ; the same was in the beginning with God ; all 
things were made by Him ; and without Him was not anything 
made that was made. And the Word ivas made flesh, and 
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only 
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John i.) Is 
Jesus Christ " second to God " here ? Is he subordinate to 
God the Father? What thinkest thou? With regard to 
your difficulty in believing in that which has not been revealed 
to your senses, have patience, my friend ! It shall be so, by 
and by — in another state of being ! Till then, you must allow 
faith a place among your senses, for it is a gracious sense. It 
is to your soul what eyesight is to your body. Without eye- 
sight, what a blank the world would be to you ! " Faith is the 
eye of the new-born soul," says Mr. Wesley, " whereby every 
true believer seeth Him w T ho is invisible — seeth the light of the 



114 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Faith is light also; 
what light is to your natural eye, such is faith to " the eyes of 
your understanding." What you read in the Bible challenges 
uot your eyesight alone, but your faith. You must see those 
things through "the eyes of your understanding" which you 
read through the eyes of your body. Now, observe, however 
good may be your natural sight, light is wanting. If you 
would read the Bible, apply the idea to your intellectual eyes, 
and the necessity of supernatural light, and you have my idea 

of faith. 

li Faith lends its realizing light, 

The clouds disperse, the shadows fly ; 
The invisible appears in sight, 
A.nd God is seen by mortal eye." 

It is by this gracious sense — faith — you are to obtain salvation 
here. (Rom. v. 1.) If you neglect this indispensable aid, and 
resort to your other senses, forcing them to do the work of 
faith, which is impossible, you must be ruined hereafter. 
Observe, seeing, knowing, feeling may not coexist with eternal 
salvation. Think of this fact in time. In eternity the know- 
ledge of the fact may do you no good. " Now is the accepted 
time; behold, now is the dag of salvation." Believe now, 
by the heavep-appointed means, while you may. '-'•Blessed 
are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." But, alas ! 
who can describe the wretchedness of those in eternity who 
refused to believe until the sense of seeing and feeling, too, 
were brought into action ! 

A remark on Rom. viii. 16. The doctrine is mysterious 
somewhat, but not beyond the range of reason and illustration. 
It is reasonable, if God forgives our sins, and a reconciliation 



TO ANOTHER REVIEWING. 115 

has been effected between Him and us, that he should by 
some means acquaint us with the fact. And what other means 
could be devised, more satisfactory and safe, than by His Holy 
Spirit f — the third person in the Godhead, one of the Divine 
Persons to whom you were dedicated in baptism. (Matthew 
xxviii. 19.) Distinctly recognized also in the apostolic bene- 
diction (2 Cor. xiii. ]4), which you may consult at your 
leisure. " The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all." 
Ponder that word, "communion" which implies intercourse, 
friendship, fellowship. If such is the privilege of " all" whose 
sins are forgiven, there is nothing unreasonable in supposing 
that in that intercourse He imparts such an impression or 
assurance of forgiveness and adoption into the family of God 
as is perfectly satisfactory. Consider farther: you find no diffi- 
culty in convincing persons in your employ, or domestic circle, 
that you are pleased or displeased with them, and yet main- 
tain silence all the while. The expression of your countenance 
conveys that at your will. If so, what can you find so con- 
trary to reason, either in that expression of Scripture, " Thou 
wilt make me full of joy with thy countenance ;" or, " The 
Spirit itself bearcth witness with our spirit that we are the 
children of God ? " Follow this train of reasoning, and much of 
the difficulty will disappear ; although I apprise you that mere 
theory without experience will leave the matter dubious still, 
and uncertain to your understanding. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE HOLY TRINITY. 



p%f& before our eyes in the Scriptures we cannot 
^jSy>t believe it. We must allow the fact, or some 



'ITH regard to the Trinity, the doctrine so shines 

help but 
portions 

of the word of God are unintelligible. We are commanded 
to baptize " in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost." (Matthew xxviii. 19.) Here are three distinct 
persons. Can anything be plainer ? Here, in the " name " of 
a " Godhead " of three distinct persons, we behold an entire 
and eternal consecration of a human being, to serve, honor, 
and love that Godhead for ever and ever ! — Father, Son, and 
Spirit. For the term Godhead, see Acts xvii. 29, Rom. i. 20, 
and Col. ii. 9. 

Again, we are authorized by apostolical example to dismiss the 
people from the place of divine worship in the name of the same 
divine three : " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love 
of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.'''' 
Can any one find a foundation for a doubt that St. Paul was 
convinced there was a personality in this ever-blessed and un- 
divided Trinity ? Never would he have so expressed himself 
had he otherwise believed. Other texts might be quoted, but 
these are sufficient. Now, observe, no comment — no explana- 



THE HOLY TRINITY. 117 

tion is given us ; and yet, the Divine Being knew Low incom- 
prehensible the idea of three distinct persons, and these three 
one God, would be to all generations of men ! How evident it 
is that he designed the fact revealed to be an article of faith, to 
be believed rather than comprehended — to be admitted rather 
than understood? Thus, we find, as if by one consent, 
Christians commonly stop at what they understand. There 
they confine their reason. All they find revealed beyond this 
they consider as belonging entirely to the province of faith. 
This has been a peculiarity of Christians generally from the 
earliest times. If any exception may be claimed, history 
traces the fault, not to the laity, but to the ministry — to men 
who would be wise above that which is written, and who 
allowed their reason to intrude upon the province of faith. 
Thus, we find Hilary of Poictiers, of the fourth century, clearing 
the laity of all blame, stating that the populace of that time 
kept the true and right faith regarding the Trinity, when 
several of the ministers, by prying too far into it, had the 
misfortune to lose it. 

And now, with regard to yourself and this doctrine, there 
are other trinities, besides, upon which you had better, perhaps, 
first exercise your " intellectual capacity " — like a school-boy 
(pardon me), who must first master his alphabet, etc., before he 
attempts to exercise his powers upon the higher branches of 
education and science. There is a trinity in your own person 
— body, soul, and spirit, and yet you are but one man. Have 
you mastered all the mystery there is about that one fact, think 
you? Did you resolve to do so before you believed it? The 
king of day presents you with a trinity in himself — substance, 
beams, and heat — yet one sun. You believe this to be a fact, 



118 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

but did you comprehend it before you believed ? Do you un- 
derstand tbe secret of tins mysterious union to the present 
day ? I fear not, sir ! The element of water a few months 
since resolved itself into a trinity, you remember — hail, snow, 
and ice — yet it was water only ! You believed that, of course ; 
but did you first make yourself master of those mysterious 
operations of the elements that brought about the phenomena? 
or did you not rather just believe the fact, so clearly stated 
upon the page of nature before your door — as the Christian 
believes the doctrine of the Trinity, as stated upon the page of 
revelation before his eyes, without troubling himself about 
what is incomprehensible ? If you can believe without being 
able to explain all the mysteries connected with this triad of 
trinities, it cannot be so difficult, I fancy, for you to receive 
and believe the doctrine of the Trinity, as revealed in the 
Holy Scriptures ! 

Nevertheless, I would not conceal from you a fact. It is 
this: I strongly incline to believe, with a judicious and emi- 
nent man, that I know not how any one can be a Christian 
believer in the doctrine of the Trinity till he has, as St. John 
says, " the witness in himsef ; " till the Spirit of God wit- 
nesses with his spirit that he is a child of God ; that is, in 
effect, till God the Holy Ghost witnesses that God the Father 
has accepted him through the merits of God the Son; and, 
having this witness, he honors the Son and the blessed Spirit 
" even as he honors the Father." Oh ! beware how you disown 
or doubt this glorious and essential article in the Christian 
creed. Infidelity has many forms, and rely upon it, that 
scheme which would destroy the divinity of the Son and 
Holy Ghost is one of them. Jesus " thought it not robbery 



THE HOLY TRINITY. 119 

to be equal with God " (Phil. ii. 6) ; but he will think it rob- 
bery, double robbery, to deprive him and the Spirit of divine 
honors in any human mind. He cannot be a Christian who 
would attempt it. To do this is to justify the Jews in condemn- 
ing him to death ; and what is this but to " crucify to them- 
selves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame " ? 
(Heb. vi. 6.) "To this hour" (to use a remark of a German 
divine), " to this hour the tradition exists among the Jews, 
that Christ was crucified because he made himself equal with 
God, and therefore guilty of blasphemy." We know also that 
they had previously sought to stone him for the same cause, 
giving as a reason — u for blasphemy; and because that thou, 
being a man, mahest thyself God." (John x. 33.) Can any 
thing be plainer than this, that he who seeks to view Christ as 
less than God, brands him as a blasphemer as well as a rob- 
ber, joins in spirit with those who sought to stone him, and, 
with the Jews, convicts him as being worthy of death ? How 
can a Sociniau be saved ? 

******* 

So your " friend " has proved the hint of the old poet 
fearfully true, regarding the Divinity of Christ — I mean the 
disbelief of it, and consequences — 

" Like him that knew not poison's power to kill, 
Until, by tasting it, himself was slain." 

He is not the only one that has lived and died a witness that 
" he who believes not when he might, cannot when he would." 
But, as he is still above ground, there is hope. His friend 
invited me, challenged me into the Scripture field, where I felt 
quite at home. My fortress, if I may change the figure, has 



120 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

long been the sacred volume. When weak, there has been my 
strength ; when strong, and girding for the conflict, or arming 
for the battle, there I have selected my weapons. I have never 
been fond of the open debatable commons where infidels choose 
to fight, though often solicited. The subject at that time was 
by no means exhausted, as you have seen by my late remarks ; 
but enough was said to answer the purpose.* 

To-day, when reading a work by an eminent German divine, 
I was struck with the following : " Many in the present age are 
never clear in their own minds about the person of Christ. 
Though they were to say a hundred times, with apparent con- 
viction, that Jesus was nothing more than a man, yet it only 
requires that the Gospel, with its sacred imagery, be once 
expanded before them, and they are no longer able to utter 
the words with the same confidence. An obscure feeling 
which pervades their minds objects to it ; and when they try 
to defend the bulwark of their unbelief, nothing is left them but 
by constraint to belie the voice of truth within them." And he 
assigns as a reason, that a proper recognition of Christ would 
cost them the delight they experience in the service of the 
world and sin. 

In showing the danger of resisting the Spirit of Truth iu 
matters of doctrine as well as practice, he relates a mournful 
anecdote of a well-know r n learned man of Saxony, who, after 
having all his life long attacked Jesus and his Gospel with all 
the weapons of sophistry, was in his old days partially deprived 
of his reason, chiefly through the fear of death, and frequently 
fell into religious paroxysms of a peculiar nature. He was 

* See my "Conflicts with Skeptics," Chapters XL., XLL, XLIL 



THE HOLY TRINITY. 121 

almost daily observed conversing with himself, while pacing to 
and fro in his chamber, on one of the walls of which, between 
other pictures, hung one of the Saviour. Repeatedly he halted 
before the latter, and said, in a horrifying tone of voice, " After 
all, thou wast only a man ! " Then, after a short pause, he would 
continue, " What wast thou more than a man ? Ought I to 
worship thee ? No, I will not worship thee, for thou art only 
Rabbi Jesus, Joseph's son, of Nazareth." Uttering these 
words, he would return with a deeply-affected countenance, 
and exclaim, " What dost thou say ? That thou earnest from 
above ? How terribly thou eyestme ! Oh ! thou art dreadful ! 
But thou art only a man, after all." Then, he would again 
rush away, but soon return with faltering step, crying out, 
" What ! art thou in reality the Son of God ? " In this way 
the same scenes were daily renewed, till the unhappy man, 
struck by paralysis, dropped down dead, and then really stood 
before his Judge, who, even in his picture, had so strikingly 
and overpoweringly judged him. Ah ! my friend, it is a 
perilous exercise of mind to argue against Jesus ! To try to 
degrade Jesus, to rob him of Godhead honors, to attempt to 
tear the crown of deity from his brow, is a species of mental 
rebellion for which the Almighty reserves his heaviest frowns 
and severest condemnation. 

As a contrast, allow me to relate an anecdote, which was 
told me by a gentleman, while riding through a certain part of 
Wales. The sad story of that poor sinner in Saxony brought 
it forcibly to my mind. A young gentleman of fortune, who 
had large estates in England, arrived at the mausion of his 
aunt, thoughtless and wicked. The lady, in honor of the occa- 
sion, proposed a ball, and a large company of the elite of the 



122 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

place were invited. The assemblage collected on the night 
appointed ; and while the young man, with not one serious 
thought about divine things, was leading his partner around in 
the giddy whirl of the dance, his eye glanced at a picture of 
Christ crowned with thorns suspended from the wall. The 
sight saddened his spirits. Again he glanced at the picture, 
and felt a painful sensation at his heart, and he mentally ex- 
claimed, "If that be a fact, this cannot be right." His 
thoughts troubled him. The ball continued to go off 
charmingly, as they say, but all his comfort seemed to be at 
an end. An idea came to his relief — to step forward to the 
picture, and quietly turn its face to the wall. He did so, but 
experienced no relief, perhaps even felt worse in viewing it 
thus. The image haunted his imagination, and the words* " If 
that be a fact, this cannot be right." The ball ended, the people 
dispersed, and he retired to his room unhappy. He danced 
no more— sought divine mercy, and, my informant believed, 
obtained it, and devoted himself and fortune to Christ and his 
cause for ever, which, in view of the crown of thorns, and in 
remembrance of Him who wore it on his bleeding brow, he 
considered only his duty. I was informed he had already 
built two alms-houses, where he had collected the poor and 
needy and infirm, and supported them. How various the ways 
in which sinners are converted ! Providence is continually 
illustrating that notable declaration in 1 Cor. xii. 4, 7, where 
we find three divine persons acknowledged in differences of 
administrations and diversities of operations in the salvation 
of fallen man, and conducting believers through scenes of 
holiness and usefulness to heaven. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



TO ANOTHER PROSOPOPOEIA. 




V ES ! my " pulpit style is unequal," because my themes 
are unequal, and therefore demand difference of style. 
That which was suitable to the day of judgment, last 
Sabbath evening, would have been very unsuitable for that 
phase of Christian experience on Tuesday night, " This is the 
will of God, even your sanctif cation" The style demanded by 
that text a few weeks since, " The smoke of their torment as- 
cendeth up for ever and ever" would not have been seemly for 
" Little children, love one another." My hearers differ. Much 
of my style is regulated, as a matter of course, by respect for 
the characters addressed. It would not be proper to pursue 
the same method with a humble believer seeking a " clean 
heart" and "perfect love which casteth out fear" as if I were 
seeking the conversion of a skeptic regarding all religion. 

2. Orators, pulpit orators, who are determined to support 
a reputation for eloquence, and being great preachers, are care- 
ful to select those subjects and texts in which they may appear 
to the best advantage. Lower themes, demanding "a lesser 
style," consequently involving " inequality of style," they 
deem it their duty to leave to the care of second or third rate 
preachers, as they view them. Hence it is seldom that such 



124 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

meddle with the doctrine of sanctification and perfect love, 
and other phases of Christian experience, which demand sim- 
plicity of style. They can shine but in a certain way, and 
upon some great topics ; and to disappoint public expectation 
would be a calamity. Such men may draw large congregations, 
but seldom have any revival. The removal of such an one re- 
acts fearfully upon a Methodist congregation, unless another of 
eqnal talent in that line, can be procured to take his place. 
Had he succeeded in leaving his admirers truly converted to 
God, the effects of the change would not have been so disas- 
trous. Other denominations, who retain their ministers for 
many years, do not feel it so much. When they have such an 
orator, if financially able to cope with " calls " from other con- 
gregations, they may retain him a lifetime. In Methodism, 
the itinerating principle interferes. As to disadvantages and 
advantages, much might be said on both sides ! Having said 
thus much, disclaiming all personalities, or reference to any 
minister m this city, or to any one who may have occupied 
this pulpit in bygone years, I proceed to another topic. 

3. It will hardly answer your purpose to say much against 
personification in oratory, as all antiquity, you must be aware, 
stands so fully committed in its favor. It has long been the 
handmaid of eloquence, true eloquence — simplicity and gran- 
deur, informed with heavenly flame — warming the heart while 
it feasts the fancy, and clear up also to the mark of frank aud 
fearless truth ; stirring the soul and the conscience — weaving 
its embroidery over the imagination, but, like the eloquence of 
Pericles of Athens, leaving needles in the minds of the people ! 
covering the hearers with bouquet of roses, but planting the 
thorns in their consciences ! 



TO ANOTHER PPOSOPOPCEA. 125 

4. Personification is the prosopopoeia of the Grecians — 
a rhetorical privilege, dear and familiar to all the best orators 
of ancient times. It is classical therefore, ay, and scriptural 
too, and that places it under the patronage of the highest 
classic authority — the Bible. In my younger days I satisfied 
myself by placing it in the front rank, as to antiquity, purity, 
sublimity, and importance, with regard to the readiness and 
certainty of its effects upon an audience, either in religion, 
politics, or science ; nor have I yet altered my opinion. It is 
the art by which things are made persons, in which natural 
objects, animate and inanimate, are endowed with intelligence, 
and voice, clothed, for the time being, with the attributes of 
mind and language ; — even the sun and moon and stars, — 

" For ever singing, as they shine, 
The hand that formed us is divine I " 

5. When but a stripling, and the Spirit of the Lord began 
to move -me at times to preach the Gospel, as he moved one 
of old, when a youth, against the Philistines, " in the camp of 
Dan between Zorah and EshtaoV — he amid the mountains 
of Judea, your friend among the mountains of the Highlands, 
near West Point, N. Y., a humble student in the Cold Spring 
Academy — I remember scanning those great barriers of na- 
ture, while a voice seemed whispering within, that if atteutive 
to nature and divine suggestion, I might discover, in this and 
other scenery, points, colorings, positions, and aspects, which 
would be of great service in the pulpit, for the elucidation of 
truth, and which add greatly to its vividness and effect. The 
thought awakened in me an attention to Nature which has in- 
fluenced my mind ever since. 



126 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

6. The apostle tells us, " There are, it may be, so many hinds 
of voices in the world, and none of them is without significa- 
tion.'''' (1 Cor. xiv. 10.) Opening upon a passage in the Book 
of Psalms, I read a call to the sun and moon and stars to 
assume a voice and praise the Lord ! The heaven of heavens 
also, and the waters above the heavens, and the fire and hail 
and snow, vapors and stormy winds, sweeping to and fro 
beneath the heavens, to lift up their voices and praise the Lord ! 
And the earth, with its mountains and hills, fruitful trees and 
goodly cedars, its beasts and cattle and creeping things and 
flying fowl ; and all the instruments of music among the Jews, 
trumpet, psaltry, harp, and timbrel, stringed instruments and 
organs, loud cymbals and high-sounding cymbals — all to unite 
with kings and people, princes and judges, young men and 
maidens, old men and children, and with angels and all the 
hosts of heaven, to praise the Lord ! And again, in another 
part of the sacred volume, the ocean, in all its multitudes of 
waves, is lifting up its hands to God, the floods also lifting up 
their voice, the mountains and the hills breaking forth into sing- 
ing, and all the trees of the fields clapping their hands ! The Bible 
is the book in which to study prosopopoeia, and in a higher sense 
than ever Grecian or Roman orator or poet imagined. " Ex- 
travagance " is a convenient phrase in criticism, but you will 
hardly venture to apply it to the inspired volume. 

7. Another instance just occurs to me — the- deputation of 
trees to the trees, with a design to select a king from among 
them — which was easily done, but not so easily carried into 
effect, for the trees refused the honor ! (Judges ix.) The trees 
went forth on a time to anoint a king over them, and they said 
unto the olive tree, " Reign thou over us." But the olive tree 



TO ANOTHER PROSOPOPOEIA. - 127 

said, "Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor 
God and man, and go to be promoted over trees ? " And the 
trees said to the fig tree, " Come thou and reign over us." 
But the fig tree said unto them, " Should I forsake my sweet- 
ness and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over trees \ " 
Then said they unto the vine, " Come thou and reign over us." 
And the vine said unto them, "Should I leave my wine, which 
cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over trees?" 
Then said all the trees unto the bramble, " Come thou and 
reign over us." And the bramble said, " If in truth ye anoint 
me king over you, then come and put your trust in my 
shadow ; aud, if not, let fire come out of the bramble and 
devour the cedars of Lebanon." That was Jotham's political 
speech against the men of Shechem, who had met to make 
Abimelech king. He lifted up his voice from the top of 
Mount Gerizim, introducing his speech thus: "Hearken unto 
me, ye men of Schcchem, that God may hearken unto you." 
And then he introduced the fable of the trees. Here, sir, we 
find the oldest fable in the world ; nor has there ever been 
from the most ancient times a rhetorical prosopopoeia so 
expressive as this, or so ancient. The Bible is a wonderful 
book. 

8. Lord Byron's description of a thunderstorm among the 
Alps is an instance worthy of note, the thunder-peals rever- 
berating from crag to crag : 

" And Jura answers through her misly shroud, 
Back to the joyous Alps that call to her aloud 1 " 

The mountains thus calling and replying to each other is 
highly sublime. That beautiful hymn by Addison is another 
instance: 



128 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

" The spacious firmament on high, 
"With all the blue etherial sky, 
The spangled heavens," etc. 

Read the entire hymn, in which you will find the overarching 
sky proclaiming its great original, the unwearied sun publishing 
his Creator's power, the moon repeating to the listening earth 
her birth-story, while stars and planets burning around her pro- 
claim the tidings, and spread the truth from pole to pole. True, 
it is admitted, of course, that no real voice or sound comes from 
them, and that round this dark terrestrial ball they move on in 
solemn silence ; yet — 

" In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice, 
For ever singing, as they shine, 
The hand that formed us is divine ! " 

9. Well then, and suppose I do sometimes solicit the aid 
of Nature, and " set her mutes a-talking," and what is " worse, 
even devils and lost spirits ; " — seeing that for doing the first, 
I have the examples set forth in Scripture — only a few of 
which I have had time to notice — and indeed the example of 
the masters of ancient and modern literature, to say nothing 
of the practice of orators from time immemorial. And, for 
attempting the second — setting angels and disembodied spirits 
" a-talking " in the ears of my audience — I have little to say. 
I would rather hide myself behind my Lord and Master's exam- 
ple in that department of "oratory"! Instance the story 
of Dives and Lazarus. And if that does not altogether satisfy 
you, perhaps you might be better pleased with a reference to 
the example set us by Homer and Virgil. Christians, how- 
ever, never treat disrespectfully a license quietly taken, under 



TO ANOTHER PKOSOPOPCEIA. 129 

extraordinary circumstances, from a method of instruction 
adopted by their Lord and mine — sparingly, indeed, I admit — 
but, who, as a judicious divine observes, evoked spirits from 
heaven and from hell to attest an intermediate state — as if. he 
would have us read the doctrine by the lurid glare of infernal 
flames, and by the radiance of a celestial vision. My allusion 
was bold, but, of course, nothing more than a supposition — 
imaginary, if you please. Yet, allowing the facts of religion, 
and the way in which sinful men treat them, and that these 
" spiritual creatures " know what is going on upon earth, it 
was by no means unreasonable. Besides, the constant acces- 
sions to the numbers of the damned in hell, and the saved in 
heaven, must be the means of imparting a vast amount of in- 
formation, gathered from various parts of the earth. Can it 
be irrational to suppose that they do hold conversations to- 
gether regarding these things ? I think not. This is all I have 
to say upon the subject at present. 



6* 



CHAPTER XX. 

: A PLAIN TALK WITH " 




ERHAPS you are not far astray in one impression — 



<7pL> that " the Bible is an intolerant book." For it cer 



« 



tainly will not tolerate contradiction. A book in 
which we find such expressions as these, is not to be trifled 
with : " He that believeth not God hath made him a liar " — 
"Let God be true, but every man a liar " — " He that saith, I 
know him, and Tceepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and 
the truth is not in him" Not much toleration there, 1 confess. 
It spurns all discount upon its decisions — demands the recep 
tion of every promise at par ; and every declaration for all that 
is " on the face of it " — admitted for negotiation " at sight " — 
instant credit for every threatening and doctrine, precept and 
promise, to which is attached a " Thus saith the Lord." The 
intolerance of the Bible is, that it takes every man, book, or 
paper for au enemy, that is not a friend. It is the only book 
in the world that is truly and essentially dogmatical. All its 
decisions are authoritative and positive. If my preaching shows 
something of the same spirit, it arises from an honest convic- 
tion that I assert nothing but what the Bible asserts. Detect 
me, in matters of doctrine, at variance with the Book, and I 
will " strike my colors " at once ! 






131 

A question just here : Has it never occurred to you, that the 
distinction between our Lord's teaching, and that of the scribes 
and Pharisees, may be traced to the same principle ? They 
taught from tradition, rather than from the word of God. 
Hence they were "very argumentative" maybe. The matter 
of their preaching, not having the seal of " Thus saith the 
Lord" needed it — needed all the arguments which their 
brains and genius could master. But being without divine 
authority, their arguments were without force and energy, fre- 
quently frivolous, puerile, ridiculous, and therefore of little 
weight with their hearers. But when our Lord taught the 
people, they were, says Matthew, " astonished at his doctrine ; " 
and, like a true philosopher, he gives a substantial reason — 
"For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the 
scribes " (Matt. vii. 28, 29) — bold, commanding, weighty, and 
powerful, carrying awe, astonishment, and conviction into everv 
heart ; so widely contrasted with the effects produced by the 
trifling teaching of the Pharisees and the timid teaching of 
the scribes. 

You will therefore, I hope, sir, give me some credit for 
having given some attention to these matters, as well as your- 
self — that if you have a "principle of criticism," which the 
stranger, in your opinion, violates, he has a principle of action 
which violates no principle of the word of God, but is entirely 
in harmony with it. And were you as acute in mental philos- 
ophy as you are in a certain kind of criticism, you would 
account otherwise for those earnest cries for mercy which attend 
and follow this order of preaching. "Knowing the terrors of 
the Lord, we persuade men." What are thsy f The threaten- 
ing 'S of the Lord against all workers of iniquity. These we 



132 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

enforce with all the powers we can draw from heaven. Nor 
do we cease such cannonading until fear and trembling and 
deep conviction seize upon the hearts of our hearers. 

We abide by the law of the Lord our God as the great 
instrumentality in the hand of the Spirit to awaken and con- 
vict men. "But, the Gospel ! the Gospel ! what becomes of 
the Gospel ? What have you done with the Gospel ? " I 
reply, we keep it in sight — within call ; and when the law has 
done its work in piling up sentences of condemnation in the 
hearts of sinners, and their entire soul is thrown into one 
region of alarm, and the cry is ready to break forth, " God be 
merciful to me a sinner I " when, by look or expression, that 
Pentecostal question comes forth, "Men and brethren, what 
shall we do ? " then the Gospel, in all its frecness and power, 
is called into the field ; and if " the slain of the Lord " were 
many, the saved of the Lord are many also ! 

Thus, my friend, our spiritual tactics are before you in all 
simplicity. We have nothing to conceal. We aim first to 
lay the sinner under the bands of fear, and then cast him into 
conviction for sin. Repentance and a desire for pardon is a 
result. Jesus Christ is then set forth as the Lamb of God that 
taketh away sin and condemnation. The scenes of Calvary 
are presented to soften the heart, and the tenderness, the 
yearning tenderness of God ; and, to exorcise despair, we use 
the promises. To prevent procrastination, we drive the 
awakened upon that " narrow neck of land," of which the poet 
speaks, " 'twixt two unbounded seas" — a heaven and a hell; 
urging that " a point of time, a moment's space " may seal 
his destiny forever. We press him to a decision by awaken- 
ing a fear of sinning unto death, by quenching the Spirit ; 



A PLAIN TALK WITH " A PLAIN MAN." 133 

urging on his conscience that terrifying intimation of St. John, 
which it pleases the Spirit of God to apply often with very 
great force — " If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not 
unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them 
that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death : I do not 
say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin ; and 
there is a sin not unto death'''' (1 John v. 16, 1*7) — and that 
caution of Paul, " Quench not the Spirit." You have been a 
witness of the effects, if not a subject of them ! But, how many 
thousands of sinners have I seen made " the prisoners of the 
Lord " upon this narrow and decisive peninsula ! ay ! and 
brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God ! 

Thus it is written : " It is a fearful thing to fall into 
the hands of the living God." " For our God is a consuming 
fire." I never yet have found a Universalist who could cope 
with these two declarations. They are more than a match for 
sophistry. We have no lack of proof in this life, emphasizing 
most fearfully the certain execution of those threatenings in 
eternity. We find the term fear, /ear of God and fear of the 
Lord, repeated, in one connection or other, in the Scriptures, 
no less than between one and two hundred times. 

The venerable Sibbs used to call fear " the awe-band of the 
soul ! " Can you doubt we have the approbation of Heaven 
when we seek to buckle this band on the souls of giddy and 
God-provoking sinners ? W T e do so, and God helps us ; and 
some of them cry out for help, as if within the folds of a 
boa-constrictor ! We do not abandon such to their fate, but 
cry to God for them, offering salvation, by faith in Christ, to 
all «uch. Nor do we give over in many cases till they find it, 
and are able joyfully to declare, " We have redemption through 



134 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

His blood, the forgiveness of sins ; " " God hath not given us 
the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound 
mind" (2 Tim. i. 7.) To this is added that blessed assur- 
ance recorded in Rom. viii. 15, 16. Converse with such, my 
friend, and tell me if ever you have met with a happier people ! 

The style of preaching with which you find fault, may 
have seemed to you " cruel and tyrannical ; " and so might seem 
the action of a surgeon's knife, unless made acquainted with 
the fact that the life of the patient depended upon it. It is no 
cruelty to cause a sinner to suffer a few mental agonies, if 
thereby he may be saved from suffering the bitter pains of 
eternal death. What thinkest thou ? Hearken unto our 
Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew xviii. 8, 9. Here you perceive 
that the loss of a hand, or a foot, or an eye, in order to pre- 
serve a good conscience and save the soul, is better than to 
have them all, or any one of them, and to be cast into hell fire! 

If you believe in angelic agency, you can find no difficulty, 
surely, in recognizing satanic agency, or " the devil and his 
angels ; " for the existence of both is plainly declared in the 
Scriptures. Also, that they have much to do with earth. If 
there exist not legions of wicked spiritual beings in evil activ- 
ities, between holy angels and men, the antagonists of God, 
and the enemies of our race, the Bible is the most deceptive 
book in the world ! 

Satan ! may God preserve us both from his power ! But 
he is tfhe most formidable enemy man has to contend against, 
and really the least feared. The Bible represents him as an 
ugly and treacherous being, a hard customer to have any deal- 
ings with. He is called " Satan," because an enemy, and a 
cunning one. " Devil " — mind, at its worst — a being disposed 



A PLAIX TALK WITH " A PLAIN MAN." 135 

to shoot through and pierce everything that is good beneath, 
the sun. A " dragon" because of his fierceness and power. 
" The wicked one" from the sinuosity and crookedness of his 
disposition and plans. " The old serpent" cunning, subtle, 
deadly. " Apollyon " — a destroyer — in whom the desire is in- 
tense as the flames of hell. U A roaring lion" because of 
the rage and cruelty of his nature, and his sagacity and con- 
stant aptitude, like his namesake among animals, to prey upon 
and devour the unwary and the helpless. " The accuser of the 
brethren" arising from his envious nature — the cause of so 
much uneasiness and sorrow to their tender and weak con- 
sciences ; and often of so much disorder and perplexity in the 
Church of Christ. 

He is also called an " adversary," in the Scriptures, because 
of his malignant and wrathful disposition ; being adverse to 
both God and man ; — as a poet says : 

" There is but one who cannot love, 
That anarch of the thrones above ; 
Apostate, in whose sleepless eyes 
A hell of burning hatred lies ; 
Whose torture is the undying sense 
Of unadored omnipotence ; 
A withered, dark, defeated mind, 
That curses Heaven, and scorns mankind." 

He is named a " tormentor" also, from the anguish he excites 
in sincere souls — an effect of his malice. A " tempter" by 
reason of his constant solicitations to sin. He is called "a 
murderer" and that "from the beginning" — the cause of all 
forms of death, from the beginning of the world to the present 



136 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

time. " A liar " is another title of his — his nature is falsehood 
and deception. 

Such is the being against whom you were warned the other 
evening. But you think, " Devil is an ugly word," and dis- 
like to hear it in the pulpit — as much as hell, no doubt ! If 
but a meaningless word, and a representative of nothing, in 
your estimation, I do not wonder at it. But it calls up an un- 
pleasant idea, does it not ? Words represent things, and your 
name is expressed in a couple of words, and they represent 
yourself; a matter of considerable importance, regarding that 
property of which you claim to be the rightful owner! Apply 
it to the case in hand, and you have my idea! Words are not 
to be despised ; though only sounds, yet they may stand con- 
nected with a substance and a reality, as the sound of your 
own name I 

If but " a mythical being," you think " silence in the pulpit 
regarding him would be more for the honor of God." Ay ! 
if only mythical ! but if a real personage, such as he is de- 
scribed to be in the Scriptures, and as Jesus Christ, in the wil- 
derness of Judea, proved him to be, that alters the case, 'does 
it not ? And should it not rather exalt the character of God, 
when we announce from his own word his repeated warnings 
to us regarding this malicious enemy of the human race ? 
Come, my dear sir ! " think over the matter " once more ! The 
question has another side, you perceive ! 

******* 

Your '• further thoughts " are what one would expect from 
your former ones ! The plain facts are these : God is set forth 
in the Bible as a supremely great and good Being ; yet terri- 
ble in justice, in power and wrath — even to " the fierceness 



137 

and wrath of Almighty God.'''' (Rev. xix. 15.) These facts of 
Scripture drive infidels to their " wits' end" and some of them 
out of their wits, in opposing and denying the God of the Bi 
ble, and forming a being after their own imaginations, heathen 
fashion — to smile complacency upon them and their evil pas- 
sions. 

Baxter observes, there are some things in God that most 
people like very well — his mercy and his goodness, for instance ; 
and there are some things in the Devil which wicked people 
do not like — his hatred of human beings, and his cruelty in tor- 
menting them. But there are qualities in God they do not 
like — his holiness and justice, and unchangeable opposition to 
sin ; but there are qualities in Satan not altogether repugnant 
to them — his unholiness, and friendship for their sensuality. 
Nor can I conclude without trying to beat into the ear of your 
conscience another idea of Baxter — that unless you lay aside 
your fleshly mind and interests, which are opposed to the wel- 
fare of your soul, you shall, so sure as you are a man, be 
judged and damned as an enemy to God! Here I pause, 
hoping for good results — conviction and salvation — unless 
you are 

11 Boldly resolved, against conviction steeled, 
Nor inward truth, nor outward fact to yield." 



CHAPTER XXI. 



TO " A FRIEND FLOWERY PREACHING. 

^^|S£j LOWERS have been named by some poet "the gems 
Ijljk of Nature's robe." The Bible, offers a vast variety of 



^Ni^i/ such gems wherewith a preacher may adorn his dis- 
course. The Holy Spirit, however, made no use of artificial 
flowers, but gathered for us the choice and flower of all things, 
and clothed them with purity and beauty, and allows the pub- 
lic teacher to make his own selection, as judgment or taste 
may dictate. I confess to a fondness for gemming my dis- 
course with these, and with those which the gay fields of poetry 
afford ; that is, when in my judgment the spiritual atmosphere 
is congenial. And if ray friend will have patience, he may 
find himself regaled by and by with the sweet fragrance of 
these luxuries of oratory ; but they would be much out of 
place at present, I have been thinking. Have patience with 
me. There are seasons when such flow r ers would wither and 
die, if placed in the bosom of a discourse ; would appear as 
much out of season, and out of place, as roses blooming in the 
midst of ice and snow r . Nature does not venture her blossoms 
in such an atmosphere. Neither will a preacher, if common 
sense and a little grace are astir in his soul, when the atmos- 
phere of religion around him is at zero, and the people spirit- 



-FLOWERY PREACHING. 139 

ually frost-bitten ! " Is not my word like as a jire, saith the 
Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" 
(Jer. xxiii. 29.) What business have flowers among fire, ham- 
mers, and sparks? The blacksmith that would decorate his 
forge and anvil and hammers with flowers, would become the 
laughing-stock of all the smitheries in town ! 

2. Those sweet blossoms of inspiration, culled by the wis- 
dom of the Holy One from the bosom of Nature, beautify a 
discourse, however. I have listened to discourses that would 
have been much bettered by them, simply as a relief from pro- 
siness ; even by a few of the flowers of poetry, or of secular 
oratory. Something is better than nothing — iveeds in flower are 
preferable to entire barrenness ! I have sighed, before now, for 
something of the kind, when listening to a dreary discourse. 

" How were the earth of glory shorn 
TYere it of flowers bereft ! " 

The thought may apply to preaching. But, like other good 
things, it may be overdone, as in the case of that fine lady in 
an assembly, lately, who by tawdriness had vulgarized herself, 
and so she missed the respect she expected. A little good 
common sense had been better than all that. 

"0 wad some Pow'r the giftie gio us 
To see oursels as ithers see us ! 
It wad frae monie a bluuder free us 
An' foolish notion." 

3. We have listened to various sorts of preaching in .our 
day ; flashes of wit, and new-minted words and phrases, and other 
gay notions, with a little truth, to win a license and a hearing; 



140 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

flaring with gaudy flowers, like farmer M 's field, across 

the common yonder — " rich in gay weeds and hlne-bottles," 
but scanty of grain ; reminding one of a certain country pro- 
lific in useless flowers, but notorious for barrenness 1 When 
that farmer viewed his great field the other day, it was not 
the flowers which gave him satisfaction, I'll warrant you ! He 
couid have wished them "far enough," that the scanty crop 
might have some chance to grow and ripen for a favorable 
harvest. Tropes and flowers and other figures of rhetoric 
may please the fancy of some ; but that which God looks for 
and values most in a sermon, is the soundness, pureness, and 
plentimlness of truth, and especially the product thereof in 
the hearts and lives of our hearers. 

4. War and flowers are not companionable. Wreaths for 
the brow of the conqueror, but let him first become a con- 
queror ! Flowers for the path of the hero, if the populace 
will it, which they never will until he has proved himself a 
hero ! Flowers, if need be, for a sermon, but let it first prove 
itself worthy of them, in deeds of valor on the field ! Be- 
sides, it is the naked sword that cuts ; flowers would be an en- 
cumbrance. Not an adorned, but a crucified Christ, breaks the 
heart, and subdues sinners. St. Paul feared that " the cross of 
Christ should be made of none effect" if he preached the Gos- 
pel with the "wisdom of words" (1 Cor. i. 17.) Like John 
the Baptist, an effectual preacher must burn as well as shine ! 
ay ! and in this age of hardened sinners, he must burn more 
than shine; for they have had enough of shining preaching. 
It must burn — the coals of truth must burn to burn the con- 
science, and awaken a cry w T here the joke and the laugh were 
before! Hot work! Si n-conswnina preaching is flow r er-con- 



-FLOWERY PREACHING. 141 

sinning preaching, the world over ? Flamina and Flora never 
could agree ! But a preacher must be a flame to effect any- 
thing in our times. A godly person, greatly desiring to see a 
certain preacher, saw in a dream a pillar of fire, with this in- 
scription : " Such is ," the man's name glowing on it. What 

had such a pillar to do with the flowers of poetry, etc. ? 
His glowing soul would have consumed them ! " Logic on 
fire " — that was his qualification — " lava-floods of eloquence I " 
that fired everything around him. Oh ! for such a baptism of 
fire, my Lord and my God ! 

5. It is, as an excellent young divine of Scotland, who 
won an early crown — Rev. Mr. Hewitsou — remarked, that 
"the world cannot stand before a ministry that is strong in 
the grace of God. It can stand eloquence in the preacher; it 
can stand before philosophy, and before learning in the 
preacher ; but before grace it caunot stand. The sword of 
the Spirit in the hand of faith tells at every stroke ! You 
cannot give faithful testimony to the world in vain ; the effect 
will be ' unto death ' in many ; it will be ' unto life'' in all who 
shall be saved ! " Ah ! but how often have I realized this, and 
seen it exemplified in others ! 

6. This is one reason, I suppose, why some ministers of 
humble talents are more successful frequently in the awaken- 
ing and conversion of sinners than others possessed of higher 
endowments. Their trust, consequently, is more firmly fixed 
in God for success. Like Paul and his colleagues, under other 
circumstances, they have the sentence of death in themselves, 
that they should not trust in themselves, but in God which 
raiseth the dead. (2 Cor. i. 9.) Among my earliest lessons in 
the ministry was this, and it has often been of great service 



142 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

to me — that an iron instrument, though, blunt, if red hot, will 
pierce quicker and deeper, and with less force exerted, than 
one that is sharper, but cold ! A polished mediocrity, as free 
from blemish as from energy of thought and grasp of intellect, 
will never set the world on fire. But if God set it on fire, it 
may set whole towns and cities in a blaze of revival. 

7. I remember meeting the following sentiments in one of 
Mr. Jay's letters: That our old divines, and the Methodist 
preachers when they had just sprung up, had something to 
rend or melt, to strike and stick — to lead their hearers to think 
of again and again when alone, and to talk of again and again 
when in company. But what is the recommendation of many 
of the moderns ? Oh ! they glitter. They do — but, as Foster 
says, with. frost! 




CHAPTER XXII. 

TO THE SAME MORE ABOUT AN EMBELLISHED STYLE OF 

PREACHING. 



RUE ! Christ lectured on lilies ! He expatiated on 
their beauty ; but with what rapidity ! Confidence in 
^*\$ p* God, and trust in his providential care, was the de- 
sign, and he reached it in an instant. " He gives us to see," 
says Dr. Chalmers, " that taste may be combined with piety ; 
and that the heart may be occupied with all that is serious in 
the contemplations of religion, and be at the same time alive 
to the charms and loveliness of nature." I agree with you, 
we may see much of the wisdom of God in " these flowery 
illustrations " of the Bible ; more, indeed, than in the piled 
arguments of most of the abstract preachers of the day. We 
may say of them as one said of a flower which he held in his 
hand, when invited to admire an elegant building : " There is 
more of God to be seen in that flower, than in the most beau- 
tiful edifices in the world." In those fine allusions of Scrip- 
ture, how clearly Ave may perceive the mind, the wisdom and 
goodness of God ! 

2. What vast and varied material man requires for the great 
productions of his hand ! But when God would embellish 
nature with plants and herbs, and the whole brilliant race of 
flowers — flowers of every shade and tint — he calls but one ele- 



144 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

ment into action, and the others smile, and the work is done : 
garden, field and valley, hill and meadow, and mountain side 
are enamelled with the choicest work of God. Truth is the 
grand element that originates and sustains those floioers of in- 
spiration which you admire; and who does not? They are 
beautiful too, because God smiles upon them, and angels. 
Truth, appropriate truth, must call forth such flowers into a 
sermon ; otherwise they will but resemble a bouquet in the hand 
of a corpse or an idiot ! As much out of place in the hand 
of error or vanity, as flowers would be in the hand of Satan, 
or Scripture upon his lips ! 

3. I agree with you, also, that such figures are " an anti- 
dote to dulness." A poet hints that one cannot be melancholy 
where Flora reigns. It is so with a sermon, other things being 
equal; the heart must be dull indeed that is not cheered by 
the sweet and lively flowers from the gaulens of the Bible. 
But, as a guilty conscience will introduce melancholy even 
where Flora reigns, it will do the same within the fragrant 
dominions of these flowers of Paradise ; it clothes the soul 
in sable, though all around be fragrance and sunshine, and red- 
olent of heaven. A most convincing argument this for par- 
don and purity, in order to enjoy the holiness and bliss of the 
upper Paradise ! 

4. As I observed yesterday, those blossoms of inspiration 
have not been neglected by your friend. But everything is 
beautiful in its season. More upon this shortly. I can hum- 
bly say with Origen of old, " I have plucked but a few flow- 
ers from these vast fields ; not as many as the exuberance of 
those fields afford ; but only such as by their odor I was led 
to select from the rest," Such have not appeared in my ser- 



EMBELLISHED STYLE OF PREACHING. 145 

inons yet, for, to use an idea of the spouse iu Solomon's Song, 
" the time when the flowers appear on the earth " has not 
come ; nor " the time for the singing of birds ; " nor has " the 
voice of the turtle " been heard in the land ! There is too 
much of the spiritual winter remaining ; it should be spring, 
but " winter lingers in the lap of May ! " But a change is near ; 
a breathing from a rarer world will soon pass through the re- 
ligious atmosphere ; and, when " the Sun of Righteousness " 
makes a nearer approach, and brings everything that loves the 
sun out of doors, as a poet somewhere hints, then flowers may 
appear upon my sermons, as flowers upon the earth in their 
season. The trees know when to trust their buds boldly in the 
open air, and so does the stranger ! 

The truth is, he is something of an enthusiast among such 
flowers ! With regard to the Bible, he has too much re- 
sembled the boy who turned away from the beautiful garden 
of his father, straying through the distant fields in search of 
wild flowers, herbs, and plants ; but he has quieted his con- 
science with the " idea that he was only selecting the graces 
of his oratory from the same fields of nature from which his 
Heavenly Father has selected those which do now grace the 
tranquil gardens of Revelation ! and, as Jesus said on a certain 
occasion, " And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, 
them also I must bring ; " and he was vain enough, the other 
day, to apply the thought to his own selections from the fields 
of nature ! Other flowers there are, which do not grow in the 
pleasing gardens of inspiration ; them also must I bring, saying 
of these, as of saints above and saints below, 

" For all the servants of our King, 
In earth and heaven, are one ! " 
7 



146 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Nature in her sweetest harmonies often seems as if whisper- 
ing the same. When a simple flower has heen transplanted 
beside some great Gospel truth, and sheds around it a sweet 
perfume, this glad heart repeats the same. The flower beauti- 
fies the truth, and truth dignifies it. It is thus your friend 
gathers his illustrations over hill and dale. The smiling cheek 
of benevolent nature, and the sweeter smiles of nature's God, 
often cheer him, and a shout of " Glory ! " not unfrequently, 
from regaled and happy saints ! These have been his rewards 
elsewhere — maybe here also in due season ; and, to all this, the 
blissful hope of immortality ! And can I be sad even in this 
season of dearth ? Hallelujah ! 

These remarks, simple as they are, while they seem to ven- 
tilate my heart, and somehow give it a sense of larger room, 
may, perhaps, convince you that "nature" and your friend are 
on more intimate terms than this alarming style of preaching 
with which "the people have been greeted," would lead .you to 
suppose; for, though acting from principle, I like to stand 
well with my friends ; although, feeling as I do, I would 
preach as I do, were I to lose them all ! I know many 
are disappointed ; and had I come here for any other pur- 
pose than to bring sinners to God, I could hardly justify 
myself to myself. But you know how small a thing it is to 
be judged of man's judgment, when one can say, " But he 
that judgeth is the LorfLP (1 Cor. iv. 3-5.) Nature and 
revelation both offer materials to the Christian orator ; if some 
of these are unfit for war, they are for peace, and do well to 
celebrate a peace or a victory. But some are designed for war, 
and for "pushing the battle to the gates" and illustrations of 
truth and righteousness, and coming judgment, vivid enough 






EMBELLISHED STYLE OF PREACHING. 147 

to make men's souls look out of them ! ay ! and around them, 
as if seeking which way to " flee from the wrath to come I " and 
other illustrations or weapons, call them what you will, that 
fire the preacher with some such battle-cry as that of the Swiss 
warrior, " Make way for victory ; " as he rushed, sword in hand, 
upon the serried files of the invaders of his country ! Let the 
friends of Jesus take heart ! " The flowers of oratory " after 
which they inquire, may come sooner than they expect the 
flowers of spring, when once our God giveth us the victory ; 
and what if it does not occur until the depth of winter ? Yet, 
even then, 

'" While earth wears a mantle of snow, 
These pinks are as fresh and as gay 
As the fairest and sweetest that blow 
On the beautiful bosom of May ! " 

But, as before remarked, everything is beautiful in its sea- 
son. Flowers may strew the path of victory, or form a wreath 
for the brow that conquers ; but weapons of war, courageously 
wielded, make way for victory. I like the observation of an 
old minister, that, though the preachers of the word must not 
be time-servers, yet they may be time-observers ! Amen ! 




CHAPTER XXIII. 

FURTHER THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. 

OUR observations are judicious. Great care should 
be taken that such things in the pulpit are not 
allowed to degenerate into mere amusement. An 
old author, I remember, illustrates different views of preach- 
ing by a man and child going into a field of grain together. 
The child falls in love with the blue and red weeds, but the 
man is for the solid grain. And thus it is with hearers : some 
are fond of curious figures, fine speculations, and flowery 
descriptions; while others, of more solid judgment and en- 
lightened understanding, look for the spiritual and practical 
truths in Scripture. This is the corn his soul must live upon, 
while the others are attracted by gayeties and show ! Still, he 
would not altogether condemn a certain kind of variety in 
preaching, to suit different tastes and temperaments, mingling 
some awakening, until they are prepared to receive more sub- 
stantial things. 

To your friend (who, by the way, is by no means your 
inferior in understanding, but who is partial to such methods 
of illustrating truth) I admitted my preferences, when the state 
of the work in the hearts of the people justified such a style. 
Once or twice a week, a lively and ornamental style in a ser- 



FURTHER THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. 149 

mon relieves the mind, gives vivacity and elasticity to my 
hearers, and prepares them for sterner truth. A flowery or 
figurative style is by no means "discountenanced" in the 
Bible. The volume of inspiration, like the book of nature, is 
full of them. I gather from both. God is the Author of all. 
I gather my flowers from the Bible, and from nature, and 
plant them " thus and thus ; " and sometimes in a sermon, 
during its delivery, where I never expected them to bloom ; so 
making one fair garden of an hour's walk, spread out under 
the vivifying beams of the sun ; where all but the guilty may 
regale their senses, and better the heart, and cheer the spirits. 
No artificials ! none for mere display ; all for the glory of 
God ! I would, yes, I would have angels say of them, as a 
poet of other flowers — 

" Not a flower 
But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain, 
Of His unrivall'd pencil. He inspires 
Their balmy odors, and imparts their hues, 
And bathes their eyes in nectar, and includes, 
In grains as countless as the sea-side sands, 
The forms with which he sprinkles all the earth ! " 

As already remarked, this style of preaching has its uses. 
Not for "vanity and display," but for the benefit of the 
Church. It refreshes her members when weary on the field of 
toil and conflict — resting from the great fight for Christ and 
souls. A sermon, thus constructed, comes over them like the 
breath of morning flowers ; when Jesus seems speaking in the 
behalf of his Church, as to the spouse in Solomon's Song, 
" Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get 



150 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

me to the mountains of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. 
Thou art all fair, my love ; there is no spot in thee. Awake, 
north wind; and come, thou south ; s bloio upon my garden, 
that the spices thereof may flow out. A fountain of gardens, 
a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.' 1 '' And 
the Church invites, in the language of the spouse, " Let my 
Beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.'''' 
And then we have the song of triumph ! 

"This is my Beloved, 

His form is divine, 
His vestments shed odors around ; 
The locks on his head 

Are as grapes on the vine, 
When Autumn with plenty is crown'd. 

11 The roses of Sharon, 

The lilies that grow 
In the vales, on the banks of the stream, 
On his cheek in the beauty 
Of excellence blow — 
And his eyes are as quivers of beams. 

" His voice, as the sound 

Of the dulcimer sweet, 
Is heard through the shadows of death ; 
The cedars of Lebanon 
Bow at his feet, 
The air is perfumed with his breath. 

" His lips as a fountain 

Of righteousness flow, 
That waters the garden of grace, 



FURTHER THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. 151 

From which their salvation 
The Gentiles shall know 
And bask in the smiles of his face. 

"Love sits in his eyelids, J 
And scatters delight 
Through all the bright mansions on high: 
Their faces the cherubims 

Veil in his sight, 
And tremble with fulness of joy. 

" He looks — and ten thousand 
Of augels rejoice, 
And myriads wait for his word ; 
He speaks — and eternity, 
Filled with his voice, 
Reechoes the praise of the Lord ! " 

After such a triumphal song they are ready for the prayer- 
meeting — or for the battle-field, where " the slain of the Lord 
are many.'''' The following week, when the Lord Jesus comes 
down in a similar manner, to refresh and " confirm his in- 
heritance, when it is weary" and " his name yields the richest 
perfume," and music is not sweeter than his voice to the ears 
of his children ; then how delightful to hear "a new song," in 
the honor of him, whom the s])ouse calls, " The chiefest among 
ten thousand ; altogether lovely ; this is my Beloved, and this 
is my Friend, daughters of Jerusalem ! " Or, as another 
sweetly exclaimed, " His name is music to my ear, honey to 
my taste, and a jubilee to my heart! " And who would check 
the song, while they sing as if they would have heaven and 
earth listen ! 



152 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

" His vestments of righteousness 
"Who shall describe ! 
Its purity words would defile ; 
The heav'ns from his presence 
Fresh beauties imbibe ; 
The earth is made rich by his smile. 

" Such is my Beloved, 

In excellence bright. 
"When pleased he looks down from above, 
Like the morn when he breathes 
From the chambers of fight, 
And comforts his people with love. 

But when, arm'd with vengeance, 
In terror he comes, 
The nations rebellious to tame, 
The reins of omnipotent 
Power he assumes, 
And rides in a chariot of flame. 

"A two-edged sword 

From his mouth issues forth, 
Bright quivers of fire are his eyes ; 
He speaks, and black tempests 
Are seen in the north, 
And storms from their caverns arise. 

11 Ten thousand destructions, 
That wait on his word, 
And ride on the wings of his breath, 
Fly swift as the wind 

At the nod of their Lord, 
And deal out the arrows of death 



FURTHER THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. 153 

" His cloud-bursting thunders 
Their voices resound, 
Through all the vast regions on high ; 
Till from the deep centre 
Loud echoes rebound, 
And meet the quick flame in the sky. 

" The portals of heav'n 

At his bidding obey, 
And expand ere his banners appear ; 
Earth trembles beneath, 

Till her mountains give way. 
And Hell shakes her fetters with fear. 

" When he treads on the clouds 
As the dust of his feet, 
And grasps the big storm in his hand, 
What eye the fierce glance 
Of his anger shall meet, 
Or who in his presence shall stand ? " 

An acute theologian observed that " every man is born with 
his face toward hell, and his back on holiness." The fact 
that the back is turned upon holiness and God, is evidenced 
almost as soon as " the mind's first daylight " begins to dawn 
in the eye. Nor is it an easy matter to turn their faces in a 
right direction ; but with such an hymn of praise, and such 
singing, it is no easy matter for the sinner to avoid " looking 
unto Jesus." Thus it happens, that those who harden under 
prose, and fly a sermon, melt, and are held under arrest, by 
such melodious sounds of many voices. And the children of 
God are fired with zeal to renew the conflict for Christ and 

perishing sinners ; like the nobles of " olden time" who 

7* 



154: ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

touched their swords when hearing " the Gospels " read, signi- 
fying their determination to fight and die in the defence of the 

truth ! 

******* 

The " evils " you speak of are serious. We prevent them 
much as possible. Men are constantly abusing the good things 
of Providence, yet are they not withdrawn. If sinners suck 
poison out of the sweet flower of God's mercy, is it to be won- 
dered at if they " suck amusement " out of my " flowers of 
speech " ? If they pluck death from " the tree of life " in the 
Gospel, by presuming upon divine forbearance and long-suffer- 
ing, marvel not if they gather mirth from the blossoms on my 
sermon ! This is one reason why I sometimes denude my ser- 
mons of all such things, and let the naked sword of truth, and 
burning words, bring them to their senses. 

Had you seen the movements of a trio of winged insects 
the other day — a butterfly, a wasp, and a bee ! The butterfly, 
full of life and gayety, dropping at will upon every fragrant 
blossom ; " much ado about nothing " — flitting about — enjoy- 
ment alone the business of the sunny hour, careless of the 
future. Along came a spy wasp, serious in aspect, though slen- 
der-waisted as any belle or dandy, and with a touch-me-not air, 
and asserting its liberty to salute every blossom that opened 
its bosom to the sun. Next came a honey-bee, singing its own 
sweet song, blithe as the morning, cheerful as the sunshine, 
hiding itself in a flower, busy all the while, singing its grati- 
tude on leaving it for another. And other bees arrived, intent 
upon honey as the first ; and other butterflies, and wasps, and 
flies of various orders, in mazy dance and hum overhead, re- 
calling those lines culled from Virgil in our younger years : 



FURTHER THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. 155 

"About the boughs the airy nations flew 
Thick as the humming bees that hunt the golden dew 
In summer heat, on tops of lilies feed, 
And creep within the bells, to suck the balmy seed ! " 

Ay ! and reminding the poor preacher of the varied charac- 
ters which crowd his preaching-place, and their varied pur- 
poses ;— and of Yirgil again, whose lines I did not finish — 
who, like myself, sometimes withdrew his attention from flies 
and wasps and butterflies — " airy nations,' 1 as he called them — 
and regaled his eyes upon the busy bee, and other " laboring 
youth " of younger hives, returning home laden with the rifled 
sweets of many a fragrant herb and flower — thus : 

"Plains, meads, and orchards all the day he flies; 
The gleans of yellow thyme distend his thighs ; 
He spoils the saffron flow'rs, he sips the blues 
Of violets, wilding blooms, and willow dews; 
And late at night, with weary pinions come 
The lab'ring youth, and heavy laden, home ! " 

Solomon sent the sluggard to learn wisdom of the ant ; 
and may not we learn wisdom of the butterfly, the wasp, and 
the bee ? God withholds not the flowers in their season, 
though butterflies and wasps make but poor use of them. 
Bees must have flowers, in order to make honey ; and flowers 
are prepared for them by providence. Flowers, therefore, are 
made to bloom on the lap of nature, even though wasps resort 
to them for poison, and butterflies for amusement. Look into 
the matter, and, as in a glass, you may see a reason for God's 
method, both with saint and sinner, as regards the promises, 
and for my method with respect to my illustrations. 



156 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

The butterfly, flitting from flower to weed, and from weed 
to flower, indifferently, but soon to perish in the winter storms, 
resembles some of my hearers. The wasp, startling the honey- 
bee out of its line, sipping the honey-dew from every blossom, 
and changing it into poison quicker than the process adopted 
by the bee, illustrates another class of hearers. The bee, busy 
for the hive, burying itself in fragrance and bloom, intent 
upon the great business of life, to provide for the wants of 
winter and for its young, illustrate old believers, and young 
Christians, and mourners in Zion. It gladdens my heart won- 
derfully, if these take to the " flowers " w 7 hich have attracted 
your notice. It was said of One, in the Scriptures, " Butter 
and honey shall he eat, that he may know hoio to refuse the evil 
and Jcnoio the goody (Is. vii. 15.) It is so with these, sir, for 
whom the Lord God provideth. Every sunny hour, and every 
opening flower, in Scripture or sermon, these holy honey-bees 
improve to their advantage ; — go where they will, they alight 
on them — blossoms of Paradise, filled with the nectar of an- 
gelic delight — singing, they go from blossom to blossom ; and 
if you could but see and hear them in their only little hives, 
the class meetings, you would learn more than I have been able 
to tell you ! 

Those skeptical wasps — I am not hopeless of them yet. 
You are better acquainted with the doings in their hives than 
I am, I fancy. Nor am I hopeless of those pretty unideal 
nothings, as Johnson called them — vying with the colors of 
the rainbow, as they come floating in, and then out again. " Is 
there anything too hard for God ? " One idea, planted in those 
/ife-long hearts by the Holy Spirit, will make a wonderful 
change in all that starch and frippery ! Amen, 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

TO I AN ANGRY HEARER. 

) &B,T is not my habit to reply to every hearer who chooses 
^VpL to fling back his offence. " Let an angry man always 
^P^fj- have the quarrel to himself," was the motto of one 
who was never known to quarrel with any one, no matter what 
the provocation. It might be good at the present time ; still 
I hope a few plain words may not be amiss. That you have 
cause both for sorrow and repentance, is plain enough; but 
none for anger, that I can see, unless it be excited against your 
easily besetting sin. Exercise self-control. Keep cool. It 
was once remarked of one that he was of so irritable a temper 
that he was ready to fight with his own image in the looking- 
glass. He was an object of pity, poor man, doubtless ! Much 
more should such keep cool as are angry at their own image 
reflected in the glass of the Gospel ! I never read that the man 
just mentioned tried to pick a quarrel with him who suspended 
the mirror. That would have been very foolish, for it was 
hung up there for others to see their image in it as well as 
the ill-featured and ill-tempered man. He knew that neither 
the upholsterer nor the mirror was to blame for his own 
unseemly appearance! I wish I could say the same of 



158 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

yourself! The man in question, most likely, wished that 
looking-glasses had never been invented (which, by the 
way, are very ancient articles, of one material or other), or 
that there were no such things in existence. But what 
mattered, seeing his neighbors could behold him without a 
glass ? 

It is rather remarkable that one who has been so severe 
against the image of God in his dear children — rather those 
imperfections which, alas ! are too many, but some of which 
seem inseparable from poor humanity, but when mirrored in 
your glass, were only found fault with — you should cease 
offering fight to their imperfect image, to fight with your own ; 
ay ! and with him also that had the temerity to hold up so 
faithful a mirror. Had the glass been painted, or veiled, or so 
adorned with the flowers of orator} 7 , matters had been differ- 
ent. Admiration feasting on flowers, the dimly outlined figure 
might have escaped even your own recognition. My name- 
sake among the apostles, likened the " hearer of the word, and 
not a doer" " unto a man beholding his natural face in a 
glass: for he behold eth himself." They neither painted, nor 
veiled, nor obscured with flowers the glass of the preached 
word, in those days. " He beholdeth himself'' Not somebody 
else, or some doubtful wight or other, but "himself!" But 
it was then, as now, in too many instances — he " goeth his way, 
and straighhvay forgetteth what manner of man he was." (James 
i. 23-24.) Not so with yourself! You went your way, and 
memory in company. To forget your own looks, as you ap- 
peared in the mirror of that sermon, you found an impossi- 
bility. There is hope of you, I think; unless you quite de- 
stroy repenting grace by ill-humor. Be this as it may, there is 



TO I AN ANGRY HEAEEE. 159 

a fact which hangs in your memory like the bell in yonder 
belfry ; and though you may succeed to silence it, it is still 
there, ready to sound a fearful knell one of these days, when 
set in motion by the hand of Providence, or the Holy Spirit, 
or by death. 

Had the preacher been less faithful, and more intent in dec- 
orating his discourse with the flowers of imagination, than in 
presenting a naked mirror, careless whether it had any frame 
at all ; he might have lessened your " trouble " and curses, but 
at the risk of the curse of God. Is it not written, " Cursed 
be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully "? (Jer. xlviii. 
10.) Charity begins at home, in this sort of trouble. Better get 
you into trouble in your own conscience, that you might be 
forgiven of the Lord, than get myself into trouble with the 
Lord. Had you been prudent and quiet, and carried your case 
in a state of sorrowing repentance to the Lord, all might have 
been forgiven. Snch exposures are no part of my policy 
They injure the public taste, when personal. Pulpit faithful- 
ness may accomplish all that God intends, without dragging 
out such things thus before a conoreo-ation. When Nathan 
said to David, " Thou art the ma??," it was done in private, 
and had the desired effect ; and God, a deeply offended God, 
was satisfied. 

I am certain, had you been quiet, and humbled yourself 
before the Lord, there the matter might have rested : " Who 
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God 
that justifieth. Who is he that condemncth ? It is Christ that 
died, yea rather, that is risen again, xoho is even at the right 
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Rom. viii. 
33, 34.) He who intercedes for a repenting sinner can never 



160 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

turn round, in the same breath, and accuse and condemn I 
Having Christ on your side, all would have been well ; but 
to set an uncharitable and unforgiving public against yourself, 
was folly, if not madness. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

TO ANOTHER A QUIET EXPLANATION J OR, FACTS ABOUT 

PREACHING. 

v"tM| NCE on a time, a godly preacher observed, "To 
j^x^ preach simply, is not to preach rudely, unlearnedly, 
Sr^^ nor confusedly ; but to preach plainly, perspicuously, 
that the simplest may understand what is taught, as if he heard 
his own name." The rub was there ! He felt just as one did 
in a certain assembly, when he cried to the preacher, in the 
bitterness of his soul, " Name me ! " There is hope of such 
men. They are far from being the worst or most hopeless 
specimens of society. 

Some of our hearers often remind me of sieves dipped into 
a river, which hold the water no longer than they are in the 
river : they remember the most stirring truth no longer than 
they are immersed, so to speak, in the sounds of the sanctuary ! 
I have little hope of such hearers. More hope, I confess, of 
such as fret or mock or wonder. A few breaths go forth from 
the preacher, and a few sounds reach the hearer, and there the 
matter ends, usually, with the former, Not so with the latter 1 
Trouble just begins then. He spoke truly who said, " The 
A B C of a Christian is to learn the art of hearing." Jesus 
thought as much when he said, " Take heed how ye hear" 
(Luke viii. 18.) Such as are under notice have learned the 



162 ARROWS FROM MT QUIVER. 

A B C in bad humor, like some ill-conditioned boys at 
school ! But for all that, they may soon be able to 

" read their title clear 
To mansions in the skies." 

It is very seldom I tell people from the pulpit things which 
they have never before heard or known or thought of in 
theology. Seldom do any of them remark, " I never heard of 
that before ; M but the cases are frequent when they tell me 
how distinctly their particular sins were described*! It so 
happens, in placing doctrines which they already believe 
in some striking positions and under some new or stronger 
light, that the sins of individuals are brought into light also, 
that "sin might appear sin, working death; that sin by the 
commandment might become exceeding sinful" (Rom. vii. 13) ; 
God by this means startling the conscience into an acknowl- 
edgment of that one passage of Scripture, at least, " Thou hast 
set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy 
countenance. 1 '' Ah ! my friend, many, when preaching the 
word, realize this to their sorrow and humiliation, as well as 
some who are hearing the same ! Like John Bunyan, who 
tells us, in his " Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners," 
that sometimes when preaching, like Samson, he bowed him- 
self with all his might to condemn sin and transgression, 
even when horribly assured by the devil, in some cruel sugges- 
tion, that he was preaching against himself! 

It is not unlikely ihis " Thou art the man " style of preach- 
ing sounded odd, at first, to one accustomed so long to the third 
person style of address— that anybody, or everijbody, or nobody 
method. This sort of generalizing has never seemed to effect 
much in my efforts. The direct stroke at the individual con- 



FACTS ABOUT PREACHING. 163 

science has usually done the work. Whether armed with 
terror or winged with love, the response has followed often, 
and in a most decided manner. But it has caused me both joy 
and sorrow ; joy, when — like the lightning, the thunder, and 
the storm that drove Noah and his family into the ark — it has 
led some poor sinner to " flee from the wrath to come" and 
enter the Ark of safety, Jesus Christ our Lord ; sorrow, when 
— like the same storm that drove Noah and his household into 
the ark, but swept a careless world away — sinners, by such 
preaching, have been swept away from me, leaving me empty 
pews in abundance the following night. Then, how my soul 
has humbled itself, and cried to God, and mourned in secret 
places. And with what joy have I seen them return again, 
eager, penitent listeners to the word ! and that word soft and 
mild now, and gentle as the tones that greeted the dove of 
the deluge, when poising with weary wing over the ark, being 
now made willing to return ! Ay ! and comforting and assur- 
ing, like the bow of promise after the horrors of that storm of 
storms ! Ay, tender, like the sweet tones of Jesus, maybe, 
when he said to the troubled and heavy laden, " Come unto 
me, and I will give you rest. I will refresh you ; and him that 
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.'''' Such a style 
would have been all but lost upon those sinners before they 
had been hewn by the word. It was with sinners somewhat 
as with Elijah on Horeb — the great wind that " rent the moun- 
tains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord," and the 
earthquake that set the mountains around a-trembling and up- 
heaving, and the cloud-rending and consuming fire prepared 
the prophet to hear the " still small voice " with attentive and 
reverent awe, and gratitude and love. 



164 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

That blow at an individual conscience, the other night, fell 
upon a number of others ; and that single fragment hurled in 
another direction, splintered like a shell bursting in a crowd. 
You saw the effects. " He that is without sin among you, let 
him first cast a stone at her" Directness is attained by the 
single aim, in preaching, as in fowling. The word comes with 
marvellous power thus, when accompanied by the Holy Spirit. 
The sinner is made to exclaim, " It is me he means, and no- 
body else." And he feels, just as your friend felt, that " the 
eye of the preacher " is fixed on him alone ! The art of caus- 
ing the eyes of a portrait to be looking at a spectator, no 
matter how he may change his position, and, if there were 
twenty persons in the room,, each would receive a similar 
impression, is not confined to the limner alone, as the Spirit 
of God, aided by conscience, exhibits a similar phenomenon, 
frequently, in a living preacher, when preaching " the Gospel 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." A truth 
which might seem and was intended for general application, 
I have known to bend in a particular direction, and strike a 
sinner as if directly aimed at him ! like as a shaft of lightning, 
direct from the bosom of the thunder-cloud, curves from the 
straight line in which it was launched, without any visible 
cause, and strikes and fires a building quite on an angle. 
Some sinners, like certain bulky substances in a thunder-storm, 
are peculiarly adapted to attract the lightnings of truth! 

It might be prudent to whisper this truth in his ear, from me, 
that the notion that some tattler had been busy with the ear of 
the preacher, is but a device of Satan, to lessen the effect, and 
to fret him against his neighbors ; not unfrequently does the 
archfiend make capital thus ! But he never whispers in the 



FACTS ABOUT PREACHING. 165 

ear of the irritated sinner, " The eyes of the Lord are in every 
place, beholding the evil and the good.' 1 '' (Prov. xv. 3.) 

Let hhn be assured, it was only another effort of " the 
eternal Spirit " to remove from his eyes that veil of darkness 
held there by " the god of this world." (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.) That 
was a keen remark of one, " Every sin draws hell at its very 
heels; " ay, and the truth, too, that would awaken and save. 
It was only yesterday that a cloud of a handbreadth soon 
spread over all the sky. Such a cloud has overspread the soul 
of your friend ; it may be but the forerunner of a heavy and 
disastrous gale, illustrative of my text last Sabbath night : 
" Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even 
a grievous whirlwind ; it shall fall grievously upon the head of 
the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he 
have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his 
heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.' 1 '' (Jer. 
xxiii. 10, 20.) The wiser way would be to " consider it per- 
fectly," now, when consideration will be of some avail. Un- 
availing regret is often very bitter. "Let go things less 
necessary, and mind the main," said one a long time ago, add- 
ing, " the task is long, the time short ; opportunities are 
headlong, and must be quickly caught, as the echo catches the 
voice : there is no use of after-wit.'''' The advice that was good 
then is good now, seeing the clouds still keep their station ; 
judgment lingers, and divine mercy hovers round ! 

Atterbury asserted that " the worst company in the world 
is better than a reproving conscience." I don't know about 
that; for such a conscience may goad a sinner to fly to Christ 
for deliverance from it. In its relation to happiness, I suppose, 
he was right. But not a few in this city consider the weak- 



166 ARROW'S FROM MY QUIVER. 

est, leanest, and most drivelling preaching preferable to that 
which awakens the conscience, and sets it to the execution of its 
heaven-appointed office ! Ah ! sirs, all you who hear me 
this day, take notice — a reproving sermon, like a reproving 
conscience, may effect an eternal good for the reproved. 

Conscience is a law in the soul, and overrules certain objec- 
tions and skeptical notions with great force and authority. 
How often it has resolved itself into judge, jury, and execu- 
tioner, some of you;know very well by experience. It has the 
ability to discern the nature of an action, the authority to 
threaten, accuse, and sentence, and the power to carry it into 
execution. 

The Psalmist says : " In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, 
and the wine is red ; it is full of mixture, and he poureth out 
of the same : but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth 
shall wring them out and drink them" (Ps. lxxv. 8.) Awful 
passage ! He of whom we have been speaking has been sip- 
ping from that cup ; and it has been at the lips of some of you 
now present. The dregs are reserved for eternity. Alas ! 
alas ! who can hope, after all that God has declared upon the 
subject, of ever reaching the bottom of that cup ? It is called, 
in Rev. xiv. 10, " The cup of his indignation ; " and its chief 
ingredient, " the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out 
without mixture, into the cup of his indignation" Oh ! that 
little word " is," " is poured out," indicates an eternal now ! 
No wonder, then, that it is stated in the same terrible text, 
" And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and 
ever." Oh ! may God save both preacher and hearer from a 
portion so terrible. 

But, says the Psalmist, " There is mercy with thee, that thou 



FACTS ABOUT PREACHING. 167 

mayest be feared " — not hated, but "feared." In hell, " hate 
and malice inextinguishable " prevail, because there is no hope 
of mercy. Here sinners may hope for mercy ; therefore they 
fear without hate, and repent without malice, and soon learn 
to love him who first loved them ! 

But you are waiting for the text. Another remark before 
you hear it, for it is a solemn one : It was the saying of one 
now with God, that when the Lord sends cries unto a people 
for their unbelief and wickedness, as he sent Jonah to cry 
against Nineveh, that if they do not repent, like Nineveh, while 
such cries continue among them, then God himself will rise up 
against them ! Alas ! if this is the last cry in the ears of 
some, how ought I to preach, and how ought you to hear and 
pray ! May I preach, and you hear, as for eternity. Text : 
Job xxxvi. 18.* 

* The sermon may yet be published, but the time is not yet 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



TO A WORDY DOUBTER PROLIXITY. 



} X,T is questionable whether your "friend" needs your 



1 



- aid ! He is capable of defending his own cause, so 
^PSe far, perhaps, as it is possible for such principles to be 
defended ; and in a gentlemanly spirit, too, which is pleasing 
to find in one professing such opinions. But mercy on us, sir ! 
have mercy upon one's patience, and learn to express your ideas 
in fewer words ! This is an age of retrenchment, and I see no 
reason why verbosity should be exempted. Besides, suffer not 
your sentences to be so insufferably long ! That was a wise 
remark of Old Humphrey, that "for the arrow intended to go 
right home, straight to the mark, there is nothing like taking 
a single aim/" This is what a friend of his called "using a 
rifle barrel, instead of a scattering blunderbuss ! " Some 
sentences are something like the latter — they scatter in every 
direction, and miss more than they hit ! I like a single, 
unencumbered sentence, even from an opponent, because one 
knows then what he would be at, as well as confident he knows 
the same ! Packing a sentence is like an archer letting off half 
a dozen arrows at once from the same string, intended for the 
same object — pretty sure to embarrass each other on the way 
rather than hit the mark I 



TO A WORDY DOUBTER PROLIXITY. 169 

Mend your sentences, then, or end them ! Try to see 
clearly, and then you are likely to write clearly, and to the 
point. That man who got lost on the moors the other day in 
a fog, performed various evolutions and comical circles most 
sincerely, without nearing his true point a jot — wearying 
himself in vain to find it, and others to find him ! Had the 
atmosphere been clear, he could have gone straight to the 
outlet ; or if altogether bewildered himself, his whereabouts 
could have been seen by others ! Pray to God, friend, that 
your understanding may revolve in a clearer atmosphere ! The 
deviVs moors, like the Derbyshire, are notorious for fogs ! 
You will see clearer, and write better, when clear off from 
those unappropriated tracks of speculation ; or if appropriated, 
it. is by Satan, and his " hangers-on," who love darkness 
rather than light; poor skeptics and daring infidels, volun- 
teers for hell, without so much of bounty money as the 
Scotchman's " baubee," fighting their way thitherward through 
mere love of it ! 

While upon this subject — for, I assure you, I feel deeply 
interested, so much time have I wasted in deciphering ideas 
out of muddled composition — you will excuse me for referring 
to the remarks of one regarding modern German prose writers. 
He said every German regards a sentence in the light of a 
package, and a package not for the •mail-coach, but for the 
wagon, into which his privilege is to crowd as much as he 
possibly can ! Having framed his sentence, therefore, he next 
proceeds to pack it, which is effected partly by unwieldy tails 
and codicils, but chiefly by enormous parenthetic involutions. 
And should his sentence extend into a proposition, all qualifi- 
cations, limitations, exceptions, and illustrations are stuffed and 



170 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

violently rammed into it. That all this equipage of acces- 
saries is not so arranged as to assist its own orderly develop- 
ment, no more occurs to a German as a fault, than that in a 
package of shawls or of carpets the colors and patterns are 
not fully displayed. To him it is sufficient they are there ! 
He instanced a Mr. Kant, who succeeded in "packing up" a 
sentence which covered three closely printed octavo pages ! — 
who seemed to finish with a pause to draw breath, with the air 
of one who looks back upon some brilliant and meritorious 
performance ! 

Now all this is doubtless somewhat overdrawn, for I have 
read German writers, both in prose and poetry, the very reverse 
of this. In the balance and structure of their sentences and 
modifications of their periods they would compare favorably 
with our best English writers — unless their translators corrected 
their encumbrances, as we sometimes say " the tailor makes 
the man." Be advised, clip your sentences into two or three, 
at least, so as to allow a few more breathing points. Above 
all, let them not be " dimly writ, nor difficult to spell," nor 
force one to murmur with Milton, 

" And what have "been thy answers ? what but dark, • 
Ambiguous, and with doubtful sense deluding I " 



Keep cool, sir ! Remember, as I sometimes say to my 
opponents, " It is the cold steel that cuts ! " In such matters 
we must think and let think, both as to sentiment and style, 
and leave fighting to things beneath us. I have been taught 
to suspect that those who are ready to fight for their re- 
ligion have little religion to fight for ! Beware of such 



TO A WORDY DOUBTER PROLIXITY. 171 

flings, for words and sentences so hurled are as ungraceful 
and undesirable as head-endangering stones or sticks ! Cowper, 
speaMng of a belligerent character, says : 

"I saw him fling a stone, as if he meant 
At once his murder and his monument ! " 

The shrewd observations of a sensible man are worthy 
your consideration at the present time : To quarrel, he said, was 
the easiest, commonest, and foolishest thing in the world, 
whether by man, woman, or child ; no matter what the provo- 
cation may be, there is no necessity, and no benefit to be gained 
by it ; and yet, strange to say, theologians quarrel, politicians 
quarrel, physicians and lawyers quarrel, the Church quarrels ; 
nations, tribes, and states quarrel; men, women, and children 
quarrel ; dogs, cats, birds, and beasts quarrel about all manner 
of things, and on all manner of occasions. He admitted that 
out of these evil things some redeeming results may come, and 
produce their grain of wheat to a bushel of chaff; and made a 
liberal offer withal, that if anybody ever discovered a good 
thing come out of a quarrel, if he would give him the length, 
breadth, and quality of it, he would insure him a patent for the 
same, and credit to boot of having seen farther into a mill- 
stone than any chap that ever looked into daylight east of the 
Hudson ! I am giving you the man's own language ! 

Some things, he added, look well in theory, but will not 
answer at all in practice ; but neither the theory nor the prac- 
tice of quarrelling is good. If people will not listen to reason, 
they will not hearken patiently to abuse. You may lead, but 
you cannot drive men. Men cannot believe upon compulsion; 
nor can you reach the human mind by force of arms. 



172 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

" Couvince a man against his will, 
And he's of the same opinion still." 

You have a right to your opinion, and so have others. 
When men quarrel about politics, they are denying the first 
principle of liberty — freedom of thought, without which there 
is nothing in politics worth a groat ! You have a right to con- 
vince, if you can ; exercise that right, but don't quarrel. A man 
has a right to stand by his religious faith — a right to insist 
upon it, and to present it respectfully on all proper occasions to 
the consideration of others, but he has no right to quarrel ! Let 
my excited friend ponder these remarks — they will do him good. 
******* 

Pardon my obtuseness ! I am tempted into couplets ; but, 
have you never been tempted to say of some communications, 
as Montgomery did of books ? — 

" But books there are with nothing fraught, 
Ten thousand words, and ne'er a thought ! " 

Preserve temper, and do not get out of patience either with my 
"superstition" or "want of discernment." I am persuaded 
you can produce something more worthy of yourself, to say 
nothing of your cause, or of my reply. The unamiable mood 
betrayed in your last is excused. But now this feathery style, 
— and so much of it ! — in behalf of your talents and education, 
I protest. I have no pleasure in teasing you, but wish to 
excite you to what you are evidently capable of — a manly 
style, at least. If the cause you have espoused is not worthy 
of it, say so, and give the matter up. What is worth doing at 
all, is worth doing well. I am not pleading for sublimity of 
style, nor even elegance, but for perspicuity and seriousness 
and candor, and some touches of that genius which I know 



TO A WORDY DOUBTER PROLIXITY. 173 

you possess; even a little humor will not be taken amiss, and 
maintain a kind spirit. Let us not bully each other; yet, 
knock my cause down with solid argument, if you can ! Re- 
member, it tires the arm sooner to throw feathers than sub- 
stances of reasonable weight, because it is such a temptation to 
an undue exercise of strength when a feather is to be pro- 
jected to a great distance. This is really good advice! Ouff 
with some full-grown manly ideas, in good, stout, robust old 
English. If the system you have espoused is incapable of sup- 
plying you with such ideas, abandon it for a better. 

******* 
My friend is improving ! A question just here : Has it ever 
happened, when ascending a stair in the dark, that, in raising 
your foot for another step where none was, because you had 
arrived at the top sooner than you expected, you made a sur- 
prise step, and came down with a decided thwack of your 
foot upon the floor from which you had the previous moment 
lifted it ? Or, when descending, maybe, you reached the 
hall below by one step sooner than you calculated, and, 
stepping for that step, your foot and the floor met somewhat 
disagreeably ? Well, I am mistaken if you have felt nothing 



of this in your last effort. Infidelity has a short staircase 
leading to nothing, and that does not suit an. intellect like 
yours. It is a system of negatives, and all its steps are such, 
affirming nothing, and denying everything, and soon conducts 
the mind to the end of everything ! No ingenious mind can 
be brought without a shock to such a conclusion ! 

Again, I must suggest, come to the point at once ; speak 
out all that is in your heart — the notions of your M Society," 
whatever they are, though as wicked as Cain and foul as 



174: ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Paine. If low, you need not surely climb so to reach them, 
like Shakspeare's hero, who 

" Climb'd o'er the house to unlock the little gate 1 " 

Infidelity, as a scheme of opposition to the Bible and re- 
vealed religion, is necessarily low, and originates low thoughts, 
#and these, like small thoughts, even in a good cause, are never 
bettered by an attempt at splendor of language. To attempt 
it in behalf of such thoughts as your scheme inspires is mere 
bombast ; it is like General Tom Thumb acting the monarch 
or wielding the sword of a Sir William Wallace ! or like 
the dwarf in the Irishman's bull, who was so tall he had to 
climb a ladder to shave himself! 



Not at all ! I meant you no disrespect, but your principles 
rather. Your talents, as well as those of your friend, whose 
cause you have espoused, are fitted for nobler themes than infi- 
delity can furnish them. Indeed, I see not how either of you 
can cling to such principles, unless bound down to them by 
some wicked habits, and despair of happiness in another 
world. 

Infidelity affords but a meagre field for the human intellect. 
What is there in it to stimulate a worthy zeal, to expand 
the mind, or warm the heart ? It is like " the vineyard of the 
slothful" and " the field of a man void of understanding," 
celebrated by Solomon ; " thorns and nettles had covered the 
face thereof, and the stone wall was broken down." It is full 
of impediments, without good fruit, but thorns in plenty to 
pierce the laborer therein with many sorrows, and nettles, too, 
to sting him into evil humors, and often into desperation ! 



TO A WORDY DOUBTER PROLIXITY. 175 

How fearfully true the remark of one, that infidelity arms 
the understanding against the dictates of Revelation, and the 
passions against the purity and self-denial of the divine re- 
quirements, and the will against " all that is called God, and 
icorshipped ;" it arms every member as an instrument of un- 
righteousness, and precipitates the whole man into the battle- 
field occupied by the hostile forces of good and evil. Ah! 
these are truthful observations ! How often I have seem them 
verified in my sojourns in different countries ! 

* * * .* * * 

But are you not aware that such virtues as you mention 
are inculcated in a yet higher degree in the Gospel ? Why 
retreat into infidelity to discover or enjoy them ? Mr. Wesley 
was conversing one day regarding the American Indians with 
a lady, who earnestly inquired, " Do you mean by Christianity, 
then, temperance, justice, and veracity ? " Mr. W. replied : 
" What do you apprehend more valuable than good sense, 
good nature, and good manners t But all these are contained 
in the highest degree in what I mean by Christianity. Good 
sense (so called) is but a poor, dim shadow of what Christians 
call faith. Good nature is only a faint resemblance of Chris- 
tian charity. Good manners, if of the most finished "kind that 
nature assisted by art can attain to, is but a dead picture of 
that holiness of conversation which is the image of God 
visibly expressed. All these put together by the art of God, I 
call Christianity ! " Here, sir, you have an epitome of the 
religion of Jesus Christ I Why then plunge into the murky 
shades of infidelity in search of virtues (if that be really your 
object), which, to say the least, you can find in much higher 
perfection in the Christian system ? Tell me, have you really 



176 ARROWS FROM MY QUIYER. 

found such virtues exhibited among infidels ? Are they not, 
wherever found, among the coarsest and most unamiable in the 
community ? Can you deny it ? What is there in your sys- 
tem to make them otherwise ? With your own judgment I am 
content to leave the matter. 

With regard to what is personal, I trust the lesson has been 
profitable, and may yet be more so. He spoke well who said, 
" He that will learn of none but himself, is sure to have a fool 
his master." However, if you look into the matter more 
closely, you mny perceive that much of that abruptness in my 
manner of speaking and writing on some occasions, and 
which has struck you as " dogmatical," arises simply from the 
habit of going directly to the point, without disguise, and 
without circumlocution. There is, perhaps, a natural aptitude 
for it. In my boyhood excursions, the point of the compass 
once settled, or some distant landmark in view, hedges, ditches, 
or stone walls were no obstacles ; with eye on the mark, and a 
fence-spurning foot, and " taking breath out of companions, and 
risking neck or limb, the goal was won ! " Now, as you seem 
versed in the science of etymology, you may be in that of 
Olympics also, and thus trace the derivation of the direct pre- 
cipitancy in question. 

" The child is father of the man," 

saith the poet — ay, and the boy also — in extemporizing as well 
as excursionizing ! 

This may appear but a trifling apology for " so serious a 
fault ; " but it is the best I have to offer, unless I add this one 
fact, that when an idea is clearly perceived in the mind, or a 
truth, the necessity for many words is greatly lessened. Per- 



TO A WORDY DOUBTER PROLIXITY. 177 

haps, also, you might be willing to allow me the benefit of 
that neat observation in " The Tatler," that where a man has 
no design but to speak the truth, he may say a great deal in a 
very narrow compass ! " A sentence," you remark, " may be 
both long and clear." To be sure it may ! — as a sunbeam, 
though it reach from heaven to earth ! Only let it be clear of 
a fog of words, and those which follow it as well ! It is that 
" suffocating boundlessness in method of expression," as one 
names it, and which some call eloquence in speaking, or fine 
writing, which I enjoin upon myself to avoid, and my corre- 
spondents also. However, let all this pass. We have more se- 
rious matters before us. Let us express ourselves so as not 
only to be understood, but that we cannot be misunderstood. 
And if on occasions this is a perfection too high for either of 
us, let us aim at it ! 

The question, " What is truth ? " is appropriate enough 
from one who has withdrawn " all confidence from the Bible ; " 
that abandoned, the question must force itself upon the mind 
with fearful significance. " The Bible," says Locke, " is all pure, 
all sincere ; nothing too much, nothing wanting.' 1 '' Every truth 
necessary for man to know is there. Discard that book, and 
what have we left? Robinson, a fine intellect of the last cen- 
tury, justly remarks, and ponder his testimony : " The Scrip- 
tures of the Old and New Testaments contain a system of hu- 
man nature, the grandest, the most extensive and complete, 
that ever was divulged to mankind since the foundation of 
nature." And, I would add, there is no want iu human na- 
ture better provided for than that after which you inquire — 

TRUTH ! 

Rousseau, with whom some of your brethren have been " so 
8* 



178 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

charmed " — with the fascination of his style, I suppose, and 
not. his character — even Rousseau was compelled to pay this 
tribute to the Bible, which you must remember, if you have 
read his works : " I must confess to you that the majesty of 
the Scriptures astonishes me, and the holiness of the Evan- 
gelists speaks to my heart, and has such strong and striking 
characters of truth, and is moreover so perfectly inimitable, 
that if it had been the invention of men, the inventors would 
have been the greatest of heroes." Should remarks such as 
these, even from such a source, lead you to the Bible in search 
of what you inquire after, I shall rejoice ! Others are waiting 
for replies — another apology for abruptness ! 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

TO THE SAME CLOSELY PRESSED. 

) ST never surprises me to find a man groping in vain 
TjwZSL after truth, who has refused to believe the testimony 
^flbSfJ of God's word! Notwithstanding all you have said 
against the Bible, the wants, the inquiries, the yearnings of 
your nature are more fully met in that book, than in any other 
book or system our world has to offer. The virtues enjoined 
there are the best for soul and body ; and the vices forbidden 
there are injurious to both. Facts these, to which all men 
can bear witness more or less. The whole medical faculty, as 
with one voice, testify to them ; and so do the newspapers of 
the day — those heralds through which we learn how God is 
governing the world. 

What are we to say to these facts ? What are we to 'learn ? 
What inference draw from them ? This : that the Creator of 
man is the Author of the Bible ! If the virtues enjoined in the 
Scriptures, and the vices prohibited, produced the contrary 
effects upon men, I confess it would greatly stumble me in 
coming to such a conclusion. And I appeal to yourself whether 
it would not be one of your strongest arguments against the 
book ? But so long as the well-being of mind and body, with 
length of days, are promoted by the observance of such Bible 



180 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

injunctions and prohibitions — and the ill-being of both, with 
abridgment of life, the effect of the non-observance of them — 
you must admit I have a strong argument in favor of the 
book! 

Another, though lesser argument, is worthy your attention. 
The enemies of the Bible are those who practise the vices it 
condemns; and the friends of it, those who practise the virtues 
it enjoins. The bad hate it ; the good love it. To what con- 
clusion should this lead us? 

. Time forbids me to enlarge. Death-bed testimonies are 
often convincing. "Who ever heard a dying sinner regret that 
he had not lived a more vicious life ? or that the Bible and 
religion were not opposed with more energy and success ? — un- 
less, to use the sad remark of one, God was about to suffer 
him to drop into the fiery lake, with a senseless heart and a 
seared conscience, leaning upon a lie ! But how is it with the 
godly on such occasions ? Who ever heard any of these re- 
gret, in their dying moments, their faithfulness to God ? or wish 
that they had been less religiously disposed ? less devoted to 
God ? less attached to the Bible ? less zealous for the advance- 
ment of its truth? less in prayer and at the ordinances of 
God's house, through life ? Not one ! On the contrary, they 
usually regret that they were not more faithful in all these 
particulars. The testimony of one now in eternity is worthy 
of being repeated here : " Piety is no matter for repentance. 
Does a child of God speak against sin and sinners, and for a 
sober and holy life ? He will do so to the last ! Death, judg- 
ment, and a nearer approach to eternity shall not change 
his mind, but confirm it." Ah ! sir, how many of those 
who speak against religion and Christians, when in health, 



TO THE SAME CLOSELY PRESSED. 181 

ask their prayers and pine for their hopes and comforts in 
death ! 

* ****** 

Let us keep temper, friend ! Bad humor hurts digestion : 
true, doubtless, in didactics as in dietetics! For my part, I 
have often proved the wisdom of the old Asiatic : " Measure 
every man with his own measure — that is, do not expect or 
require from him more than is in him." I can easily make 
allowance for you. Nevertheless, for your own sake examine 
the subject calmly, with less of prejudice, and be not over 
anxious for victory. 

Indifference to death ! A mere bravado, more likely, or a 
play upon words, or a scintillation of the fancy ! 

" So like the borealis race, 
"Which flit ere you can mark the place I " 

flitting over the surface of the soul in vast uncertainties, or 
playing over the heart, like cold moonbeams over a snow-drift, 
warming nothing, melting nothing ! It is a sorry plea to make 
the soul glad by an imposition both upon memory, conscience, 
reason, and judgment ; for all these have had something to say 
upon this subject in bygone days, and they shall again, depend 
upon it ! Job spoke of " a land of darkness and of the shadow 
of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness " 
to the buried dead. The heart may be but the tomb of buried 
principles, and of dead hopes and fears, which are to have a re- 
surrection by and by! Athwart the gloom of that heart — 
thine, I mean — there may, perchance, stray a beam of light, 
dispersing itself like a ray through some chink in a sepulchre, 
" darting uncertain brightness for a moment, faint and precari- 



182 ARROWS FROM MT QUIVER. 

ous," where " the light is as darkness" leaving the mind oscil- 
lating like a pendulum between indifference and suspense, until 
some moving shadow in the sepulchral gloom , determines it 
unto unquietness. 

There have been shadows passing through your heart lately, 
or I am mistaken — 

" Shadows that will not vanish 
Though you wave them to depart " — 

unquiet, disowned principles and fears — ambassadors from 
heaven at the court of your conscience, and the representatives 
of the truth of the religion of Jesus Christ in years gone by, 
but slain by infidelity, but are now risen from the dead like 
the " two witnesses" in Rev. xi. 3-13, or like unto the dead 
which rose from the dead after our Lord's resurrection and 
appeared unto many — looking at you as they did at Jerusalem, 
when they turned their rayless eyes, covered with the frosts of 
death, upon a city devoted to destruction ! 

" Oh I a haunted heart is a weight to bear ! " 

Indifference to death! more than doubtful, except when 
under the influence of an exhilaration not natural to your 
habitual state of mind. I believe with one who understood 
well what he said, that death can never be indifferent till man 
is assured — which none was ever yet — that, with his breath, 
his being passes into nothing; that it matters little, whether 
his hopes and fears steer by the chart and compass of a formal 
creed, or drift along the shoreless sea of faithless conjecture, a 
possible eternity can never be indifferent ; that the idea of extinc- 
tion is not terrible, simply because man cannot form such an 
idea at all! Let a man, he continued, try as long as he will — 



TO THE SAME CLOSELY PRESSED. 183 

let hint negative every conceived and conceivable form of 
future existence, lie is as far as ever from having exhausted the 
infinitude of possibility — imagination will continually produce 
the line of consciousness through limitless darkness ; adding, 
many are the devices of fancy to relieve the soul from the dead 
weight of unideal nothing ! 

Allow a question : Are you entirely unfamiliar in the 
privacy of your own thoughts with those youthful moanings of 
Henry Kirke "White, "communing lonely with his sinking 
soul," looking death in the face the while, and, in the solemn 
midnight hour, feeling that his sickness was unto death ? — the 
poet, you are aware, died young : 

^ " Yes, I do feel my soul recoil within me, 

As I contemplate death's grim gulf, 
The shuddering void, the awful blank — futurity 1 

And it is hard 
To feel the hand of death arrest one's steps, 
Throw a chill blight o'er all one's budding hopes, 
And hurl one's soul untimely to the shades, 
Lost in the gaping gulf of blank oblivion." 

How solemn ! how dirge-like ! What comfort could infidelity 
afford ? Comfort he had, but it came not from thence. He 
sought it not there ; no, but in the religion of the Gospel ! 
What a relief in the closing lines ! 

" And my tired soul, with emulative haste, 
Looks to its God, and prunes its wings for heaven." 

******* 

It is but doing injustice to yourself — a piece of self-imposi- 
tion — to infer your feelings at death from what you feel now, 
The difference may be very great, unless God suffer you to die 



184 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

with a seared conscience and a senseless heart. That farmer 
in Scotland, whose dying scene was related a few nights since, 
was quite easy in mind and body though actually dying : and 
why ? He had no idea he was dying ! And may it not be so 
frequently with persons of your way of thinking? But, had 

you stood by the dying bed of one in street, and marked 

the expression of his countenance when he said, " I feel I exist 
here, and I fear I shall exist hereafter " — had you listened 
to that man when in health and hilarity, you could hardly, 
according to your notions, have anticipated such a change. 

" An infidel in health, but what when siek? 
Oh ! then a text would cut him to the quick ! " 

Much depends, doubtless, upon the light under whicrr such 
persons have sinned — the religious knowledge and convictions 
with w T hich they were favored. " I feel," said one, as he lay 
stretched on the bed of his last illness, " I feel the reality is 
very near — close at hand. You may imagine what I feel. It 
is stealing upon me, on and on, like the tide upon yonder 
shore, not to be driven back till it has engulfed its prey. 
Here I am, under the apprehension of standing soon a naked, 
guilty, trembling spirit, all memory and all consciousness — 
never again to sleep or know oblivion from the crushing sense 
of the ' deeds done in the body ! ' The dying bed may, indeed, 
be a place of torment ! How past life is stripped of its de- 
ceptions! How it is shrivelled into insignificance, in connec- 
tion with eternity — but as a tiny shell tossed on the broad, 
black surface of an ocean. Then, again, the importance of 
life ! How intensely one views it now ! The past ! the past ! 
woe is me for the past." But it is due to say, secret intima- 



TO THE SAME CLOSELY PRESSED. 185 

tions of all this had visited his spirit when in health. The sad 
forebodings of it had weighed down his heart amidst scenes of 
gayety and dissipation ; that it had covered him as a presence, 
and seemed sometimes to imprison his faculties as with bars 
and gates of iron ; that when in saloons alive with mirth and 
splendor, himself the gayest of the gay, the fear of death 
would pass through his mind, sudden as a shot, and he would 
turn away sick and shuddering. What a life to lead ! Some 
suppose familiarity with the thoughts of death renders death 
less terrible when it comes. That depends whether such 
thoughts have led to a preparation to meet it, doubtless. 

You little know what your sensation shall be at that trying 
time, when, speaking somewhat after the manner of one now in 
eternity, you may be forced to say, " The physician tells me I 
cannot live — that I am all but a dead man ; and the minister 
says I must now prepare for another world. All my days are 
gone. I can live upon earth no longer. All my preparing 
time is at an end. What is undone must be undone forever. 
My diseased body must live — my disconsolate soul dare not 
die. God ! what is to become of me!" A Christless soul 
like that, sir, is one of the saddest sights our world presents. 
Can you doubt it ? Such cases are by no means rare. "We 
Christians are meeting with them constantly — men who despised 
religion, and made Christians their jest and their byword, but 
who, bleeding and dying away from the herd of sinners, would 
give as many worlds as there are stars in the firmament of 
heaven for the comfort and well-grounded assurances of true 
Christians ! 

Bildad, in the Book of Job, calls death " the king of ter- 
rors.'''' Aristotle named it " the terrible of terribles ! " But he 



186 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

was a heathen. How much more terrible, then, must death be 

to him who has lived and sinned under the light! In view of 

these things, one who is now in his grave exclaimed, "Better 

live an Indian than die an infidel under the Gospel. If it be 

thus with the living and the dving, how terrible must be 

eternity ! 

" Darkness above, despair beneath, 

Around him flames, within him death." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



TO ANOTHER USED UP. 



jptfOME! come! sir! After all my replies to your 
"friend" as well as to yourself, this will not do ! 
You have wandered over that wilderness track often 
enough ! — unless you have a fancy for imitating the Israelites 
in their forty years' wandering in the wilderness, sometimes 
with the hills of Canaan fully in view. Really ! you must find 
something new, or we shall consider you, like your friend, 
pretty well used up ! It is not creditable, if I may alter the 
figure, to be always spinning the same thread, especially when 
it is so full of knots ! (nots.) " Not " being so constantly a 
negative, is a most unfruitful little word in controversies — 
whether it expresses simply negation, or a denial, or a refusal I 
To deny everything, and affirm nothing — any simpleton may 
do that ! I do not, neither do others wish to hear you at the 
chapel doors, and on the street, telling what you do not be- 
lieve, without a manly expression of what you do believe ! But 
if you only believe in all unbelief, call it not " bigotry " or " in- 
tolerance " that you are treated with disrespect. Respect your- 
self, and others will respect you. God himself has said it : 
" Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me 



188 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

shall be lightly esteemed ! " (Sam. ii. 30.) That is one part 
of the Bible } t ou have realized to be true at any rate ! 

****** * 

And what does it all amount to ? Anything more than 
what the old Latinists used to call petitio principii, or to beg 
the question ? — much the same as to assume a position — some- 
thing after the order of rhetorical invention, which you illus- 
trate very well — imagery, which would seem to prove a posi- 
tion, but which, in reality, only assumes it. It is not possible 
to respect such a method. 

******* 

Better you had made the confession at first: "What am I 
to do ? seeing I lack some standard of authority to which I can 
appeal with confidence ! " Just so ! Like poor Job, his mind 
as sore as his body, he sighed after some " daysman " or um- 
pire, who might interpose or arbitrate between God and him : 
" Neither is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his 
hand upon bothy And you also sigh after some acknowledged 
umpire or other to arbitrate between us in matters of " truth 
and doctrine" to whom an appeal might be made — as much as 
to say, " Neither is there any divinely appointed standard of 
truth and doctrine to which one or both may appeal." But 
there is ! Here it is ! — the Bible ! 

" The Author, God himself; 
The subject, God and man ; salvation, life, 
And death — eternal life, eternal death — 
Dread words ! whose meaning has no end, no bounds — 
Most wondrous book ! bright candle of the Lord ! 
Star of eternity ! the only star 
By which the bark of man could navigate 



TO ANOTHER — USED UP. 189 

The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss 

Securely ; only star which rose on time. 

And on its dark and troubled billows, still, 

As generation drifting swiftly by 

Succeeded generation, threw a ray 

Of heaven's own light, and to the hills of God, 

The eternal hills, pointed the sinner's eye : 

By prophets, seers, and priests, and sacred bards, 

Evangelists, apostles, men inspired, 

And by the Holy Ghost anointed, set 

Apart and consecrated to declare 

To earth the counsels of the Eternal One, 

This book — this holiest, this sublimest book, 

"Was sent — Heaven's will, Heaven's code of laws entire 

To man: — 

Definer of the bounds 
Of vice and virtue, and of life and death — 
This book, this holy book, on every line 
Marked with the seal of high divinity, 
On every leaf bedewed with drops of love 
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
And signature of God Almighty stampt 
From first to last — this ray of sacred light, 
This lamp, from off the everlasting throne, 
Mercy took .down, and in the night of time 
Stood casting in the dark her gracious bow, 
And evermore beseeching mem with tears 
And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live ! " 

I make no apology for so lengthy a quotation. The 
thoughts are just, and beautifully expressed. Of no other 
book here below could the same be said. The poet, because 
describing the conversations in heaven concerning " the won- 
drous book," speaks of it in the past tense somewhat, but we 



190 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

have the book still — the same book, unmutilated, and trans- 
lated faithfully into our own language ; and we, in turn, have 
given it to nations of men speaking at least one hundred and 
forty-eight different languages: it is now translated, in fact, 
into the languages spoken by six hundred millions of the hu- 
man race ! You and your companions reject this book as a 
standard of truth ; we receive it, and prove our belief and ad- 
miration by giving it to the nations of the earth in their own 
tongues. This book, sir, proves itself the book of books, as 
the sun in the firmament proves himself the orb of orbs, and 
needs neither torch nor candle to discern his glory ! In this 
holy book the will of God is declared in plain 

"And obvious phrase, 
In most sincere and honest words, by God 
Himself selected aud arranged, so clear, 
So plain, so perfectly distinct, that none 
Who read with humble wish to understand, 
And ask the Spirit^ given to all who ask, 
Can miss their meaning, blazed in heavenly light ! " 

Millions now upon earth prove it so, and make it the man of 
their counsel, and the rule of their life, the pavilion of their 
peace, and the day-star of their hopes. Myriads, now in 
heaven, at merry's invitation while here on earth, 

"To her voice gave ear, and read, 
Believed, obeyed ; and now, as the Amen, 
True, and faithful witness swore, with snowy robes 
And branchy palms surround the fount of life, 
And drink the streams of immortality, 
For ever happy, and for ever young I " 



TO ANOTHER USED UP. 191 

Beware ! Hard toiling with dark and crooked reasoning ! 
And to what end? Motives I judge not; but tendencies are 
evident — "to cut down the fences of virtue, sap her walls, 
and open a smooth and easy way to death," says one ; ay, and 
into error by wholesale. You reason from false principles, 
therefore your conclusions must be false and dangerous. The 
truth is, you are responsible for your belief as for your conduct ; 
not to man, but to God. Belief supposes certain facts and 
evidences. They may be true, or they may be false. Upon 
what does this responsibility rest ? where does it begin ? Just 
here : whether a sincere and proper care has been taken in the 
investigations of such facts and evidences, in order to acquire 
correct information ; whether you have not allowed your judg- 
ment to become warped by evil passions ; and whether sincer- 
ity or insincerity have accompanied your mind in the process. 
" It is amazing," says a writer, " how small a beam of light 
redeems a soul from the condemnation of utter darkness." 
Ay ! and it is amazing how small a beam of light renders a 
man responsible for his errors, and liable to eternal condemna- 
tion ! Ponder the following, where part of your logic, in gib- 
bets, receives a parting blow : 

" If faith's compelled, so is all action too : 
But deeds compelled are not accountable ; 
So man is not amenable to God. 

It was the master-stroke of wickedness, 
Last effort of Abaddon's counsel dark, 
To make a man think himself a slave to fate, 
And worst of all, a slave to fate in faith. 

Behold a man condemned 1 
Either he ne'er inquired, and therefore he 



192 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Could not believe ; or else, he carelessly 
Inquired, and something other than the word 
Of God received into his cheated faith; 
And therefore did not believe, but down 
To hell descended, leaning on a lie." 

God never sent a pagan to hell for ignorance of what he 
could not know. In the great day we shall be held accounta- 
ble for what we might have known — certainly for what we did 
know in regard to truth and doctrine. 

******* 

Not so ! You cannot draw me off to other themes ! You 
remind me of an old woman in Ireland who kept a tavern : one 
market-day, a Methodist preacher began to preach to the crowd 
standing near her door. Being pleased with his looks and 
zeal, she brought him out a chair to stand upon, and listened 
attentively. At length he began to warn them of the evils 
arising from intoxicating drinks, at which she became very un- 
easy, and stepping up to him at length, she said, " I would be 
obleeged to ye, sir, to change the subject ! " Like her, it seems 
you have all the light you want from that direction, and the 
less the better for some of your party ! 

Here then we must part. I pity you, but as you intend to 
cling to error and sin, to which the Bible gives no quarter, the 
clearer the evidences of its divine authority, the more " trou- 
blesome " it is, most certainly. You invite me into the regions 
of conjecture. I cannot leave the Bible to go there. Conjec- 
ture, besides, makes a poor array, when set face to face with 
fact. Burns, you remember, says that on a certain occasion, he 

11 Clawed the elbow of troublesome thought ! " 



TO ANOTHER USED UP. 193 

Belshazzar in like manner — "his thoughts troubled him." 
(Dan. v. 6.) That hand-writing on the wall — of conscience — 
bodes no good. " Possibles and impossibles ! " I am tired of 
seeing infidels rubbing those ears so continually, without ob- 
taining anything but chaff. It seems as if you and your party 
have ceased to dream that these two ears of infidelity shall 
ever be able to accomplish that which the " seven ears " did in 
Pharaoh's dream — " withered, thin, and blasted by the east wind," 
as they were. (Gen. xli. 22-24.) Why in such haste to those 
altitudes? Your infidel ladder is not made for scaling such 
inaccessible places ! AYhen a' man tries to be more than he 
can be, it is pretty certain he will soon be less than he is, or 
has been ! Not one in a thousand reaches anywhere near half- 
way up there ; and if you were there, what could you do 
there? Infidelity offers no instruments to assist you in the 
necessary investigations. An unregenerate sinner in heaven 
would feel himself as much in place. I understand you, how* 
ever ! Have you noticed that freak of Baron , who jump- 
ed out of a window in Paris, and broke a few of his bones ? 
In apologizing for his somerset, he said he was only learn- 
ing to be lively ! It is well the man did not break his neck ! 
But I do know of one who, in trying to be lively, has broken 
the neck of his argument, although I believe it was pretty 
well disjointed before ! 

In conclusion, I have had frequently to remind infidels of 
the extreme scantiness of their material of thought. This is 
the reason, I suppose, why they are such sticklers for the nega- 
tive side of a question. I told one the other day that he 
seemed as fond of his " nots " as any Roman Catholic of his 
beads ! This attempting to destroy everything in matters of 



194: ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

faith, and leaving blank nothing as a substitute, is pitiable — I 
ought to say contemptible; but when such would be merry 
over the matter it excites one's abhorrence. Pray, sir, seriously 
and solemnly, what is there in your system to attract or 
fascinate, much less satisfy a rational mind ? A gloomy refuge 
— a church-yard repose, the best you can make of it ; and 
carrying about all the while a conscience armed with an evil 
prediction against you, of which you cannot deprive it, though 
for a time yW may succeed in imposing silence ! And for 
this you would barter away your hopes of immortality and 
eternal life ! You may be glad to be " quit " of me, but you 
have found a more troublesome companion in your own con- 
science ! To it and Providence, I commend you. 




CHAPTER XXIX. 

TO ANOTHER THE STRAY ARROW. 

F^HE arrow does not always hit the mark intended by 
the archer, unless he were another William Tell. It 
W^jT^ is so with the spiritual archer ; a truth aimed at one 
conscience may pierce anothei>as in your case. It is as the 
Holy Spirit pleaseth. Beware of supposing that salvation is a 
great way off, or that the process of forgiveness requires a cer- 
tain length of time, or a series of performances. " The word 
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, the word of 
faith which we preach" (Rom. x. 8.) Read the whole pas- 
sage carefully and prayerfully. If you are a sincere penitent, 
and your heart is upright before Him who reads the heart, and 
you are truly in earnest for salvation, and willing to be saved 
on His terms, you will find the way of salvation in this pas- 
sage both plain and easy. 

A similar inquiry to your own was made by one centuries 
ago : " How can I have an arm long enough to reach unto 
Christ ? " He received this reply : " Believe, and thou dost take 
hold of Him." Luther defined justification by faith thus : 
" Jesus Christ hath loved me and gave himself for me, and I 
believe it." If ten thousand sermons were to be preached 



196 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

upon it by the first talent in the Church of God, they must all 
of them make that the grand central point. 

If the Bible was not oftener appealed to in that discourse, 
my conclusions were not reached but by its light. It gave me 
light to reason by. The natural sun creates day, though himself 
not be often seen through the whole of it. No one doubts 
in the daytime that the light diffused through the atmosphere 
proceeds from the sun. Apply the thought to the Bible, and 
the course of argument which arrested your attention. With- 
out the Bible, I had been like Plato when about to deliver a 
lecture to his disciples on the creation of the world and the gen- 
eration of the gods, who told them " not to expect more concern- 
ing these things than the most likely conjecture." He felt the 
need of some such authority as we have, to confirm his senti- 
ments. Indeed, in his celebrated " Dialogues " he freely con- 
fesses it. Instance that reply to the argument of Socrates, 
which Plato puts into the mouth of one of his disciples : " I 
agree with you, Socrates, that to discover the certain truth of 
these things in this life is impossible, or, at least, very difficult. 
We ought, therefore, by all means, to do one of two things : 
either by hearkening to instruction, and by our own diligent 
study, to find out the truth ; or, if that be impossible, then to fix 
upon that which appears to human reason best and most prob- 
able, and to make that our raft while w^e sail this stormy sea, 
unless one could have a still more sure and safe guide, such as 
a divine revelation would be, on w T hich we might make the 
voyage of life in a ship that fears no danger" — a sentiment 
that might well make every Deist in this land ashamed of him- 
self! 

Doubtless the strongest proofs of our immortality are in the 



TO ANOTHER THE STRAY ARROW. 197 

New Testament. That might well be anticipated, as it belongs 
to a higher dispensation. It was reserved, as one remarked, to 
grace the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is " the way, 
the truth, and the life.'''' It was but darkly shadowed forth in 
some parts of the Jewish dispensation — sufficient, however, to 
awaken the hopes and fears of that people. Angelic visitors 
and prophetic messengers strengthened the principle by en- 
gaging their faith in glorious or fearful realities beyond. It 
was a light shining in a dark place — like the nickering light 
in the ancient tomb, ready to expire amidst the darkness and 
vapors which encompassed it. Jesus Christ, " He brought life 
and immortality to light by the Gospel.' 1 '' With the apostle let 
us say, " Thanhs be unto God for his unspeakable gift ! " 
Amen and amen ! 

* * * * * * * 

Be faithful to the grace already given. How gracious has 
God been to you in Jesus, besides exercising so much long- 
suffering in the past ! You should busy yourself much in the 
Holy Scriptures, but beware of extremes; for if we are to 
"read nothing but the Bible," to be consistent we should hear 
nothing but the Bible, and that carried out would put an end 
to preaching. Mr. "Wesley, I remember, made a similar re- 
mark. We should be so familiar with Scripture as to be able 
to detect and slay any error that may happen to assail us. 
" The word of God" is called " the sword of the Spirit" by 
the apostle, and this is one reason. " It is written " was the 
hilt of that sword which our Lord wielded against Satan during 
his great temptation in the wilderness. 

As to religious controversies, I do not, of course, condemn 
them altogether ; they are often necessary for the defence of 



198 ARROWS FROM MY QUIYER. 

the truth. When error is rife or rampant, we must not flinch 
from maintaining the truth against it; otherwise we should 
break a command : " Earnestly contend for the faith which was 
once delivered unto the saints." (Jude, 3d verse.) This apostle 
gave a strong reason for it in the following verse : " Certain 
men " had crept into the church " unawares — ungodly men 
— turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and deny- 
ing the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christy It is to 
such faithful contending s we owe, under God, the purity of 
doctrine and religious freedom which we enjoy. The less you 
are in the company of such persons the better. They may 
do you an injury, and you are not yet strong enough, I 
fear, to cope with them, or to do them much good. They 
may perplex you, or shear you of your strength. If Provi- 
dence seems to cast you among them, or bring them in your 
way, why play the man! Jesus will help you! But when 
duty is over, disappear. A good man in London remarked 
that we should go into the company of worldly men as we 
go into a rain-storm sometimes — not to amuse ourselves, but 
because business calls, and we put on a great coat and take 
an umbrella, and hurry out of it soon as possible ! St. Paul 
advises, " Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ" as you would put 
on an overcoat in going out into a storm. Enter into his 
spirit, be governed by his maxims, assume his interests, and 
be wholly on his side. Every blessing on thee ! 

There is a serious flaw in your friend's reasoning. The 
Bible is not so bulky a book as to require such retrenchment. 
Perilous work that ! It might open the way to all manner of 
mutilations. And in generations to come there might arise as 
many controversies about the lost portions as about the lost ten 



TO ANOTHER THE STRAY ARROW. 199 

tribes of Israel ! This is an age of speculation, and rife with 
money-making schemes and retrenchments. He is little aware 
to what an extent such a matter would be carried were it once 
to receive public favor. There are men, too, who would re- 
joice to see the day when the Book of God is reduced to the 
size of a sixpenny pamphlet. 

No, sir ! The Bible ! the whole Bible, and nothing but 
the Bible ! Parsimonious fragments and abridgments, in lieu 
of the Bible, would be a crime against man, and high treason 
against God and the royalty of divine inspiration. " Search 
the Scriptures" says Christ — the entire Scriptures, and not 
part of them ; for the neglected part might possibly contain 
that portion of truth necessary to the eternal salvation of some 
particular soul. And now that you love that book, it is none 
too large for you ! 

It was the whole Bible found at Erfurth that awakened 
Luther amidst the errors of Popery, and not the fragments of 
it, cunningly strung together to suit the purposes of the Romish 
Church. No ! rather, I was going to say, have the Bible in 
chains, as Luther found it in the convent of St. Augustine. 
What an event that was ! Luther, a poor, distressed penitent, 
seeking comfort, and finding none. But he found the Bible — 
found it chained to a desk — but, though in chains, its unmu- 
tilate truth found way into his soul, snapped his spiritual fet- 
ters, opened the iron gate of unbelief, set him at liberty, and 
sent him through Germany like a moving pillar of fire ! Lu- 
ther, in turn, unchained the Bible, clothed it in the language 
of Germany, and sent it out through the land, conquering and 
to conquer ! 



200 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

They will perplex aud weaken you if they can. Satan is 
ready to help them ; for he longs for your overthrow. You 
are doing his cause more injury than you are aware. Why all 
this stir? Stand not too long on the defensive. Be the ag- 
gressor sometimes. Start difficulties, raise objections, press 
questions ; put them to it in defence of their positions ! More 
may be done in this way, often, than merely to defend one's 
own principles. By the way, I found some days since, a few 
stanzas of an old poem, copied several years ago, when in a 
certain part of the world, from one of the old poets. Set 
them to work upon it ! Every verse is a good text ! Quaint 
though it be, in thought and phrase, give the piece fair play, 
and it will be a match for them ; besides, its antiquity may 
win it respect. The following stanza seems but a fragment of 
the poet's address to the Creator : 

" Thou leavest thy print on other works of thine, 
But thy whole image thou in man hast writ ; 
There cannot be a creatnre more divine, 
Except like Thee it should be infinite." 

And next proceeds to investigate the nature, power, and ten- 
dencies of the soul, as proofs of its divine origin and immor- 
tality : 

" But whoso makes a mirror of his mind, 

And doth with patience view himself therein, 
His soul's eternity shall clearly find, 

Though th' other beauties be defaced with sin. 

" First, in man's mind we find an appetite 

To learn and know the truth of every thing, 
Which is co-natural and born with it, 

And from the essence of the soul doth spring. 



TO ANOTHER THE STRAY ARROW. 201 

" With this desire she hath a native might 
To find out every truth, if she had time ; 
The innumerable effects to sort aright, 

And by degrees from cause to cause to climb. 

M But since our life so fast away doth slide, 
As doth a hungry eagle through the wind, 
Or as a ship transported with the tide, 
Which in their passage leave no trace behind : 

" Of which swift little time, so much we spend, 

While some few things we through the sense do strain, 
That our short race of life is at an end 
Ere we the principle of skill attain : 

11 Or God (which to vain ends hath nothing done) 
In vain the appetite and pow'r hath given ; 
Or else our knowledge, which is here begun, 
Hereafter must be perfected in heaven. 

" God never gave a pow'r to one whole kind, 

But most part of that kind did use the same ; 
Most eyes have perfect sight, though some be blind, 
Most legs can nimbly run, though some be lame. 

" But in this life no soul the truth can know 
' So perfectly as it hath pow'r to do: 
If then perfection be not found below, 

An higher place must make her mount thereto. 

" Again, how can she but immortal be, 

When with the motions of both will and wit 
She still aspireth to eternity, 

And never rests till she attain to it ? 

" Water in conduit pipes can rise no higher 

Than the wellhead from whence it first doth spring, 



202 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Then since to Eternal God she doth aspire, 
She cannot but be an eternal thing. 

" And though some impious wits do question move, 
And doubt if souls immortal be or no ; 
That doubt their immortality doth prove, 
Because they seem immortal things to know. 

" For, he which reasons on both parts doth bring, 
Doth some things mortal, some immortal call : 
Now, if himself were but a mortal thing, 
He could not judge immortal things at all. 

" For when we judge, our miuds we mirrors make ; 
And as those glasses which material be, 
Forms of material things do only take, 
For thoughts, or minds in them we cannot see: 

" So when we see God, and angels do conceive, 
And think of truth, which is eternal too, 
Then do our minds immortal forms receive, 
"Which if they mortal were, they could not do. 

"And as, if beasts conceived what reason were, 
And that conception should distinctly show, 
They should the name of reasonable bear ; 
For without reason none could reason kuow: 

" So when the soul mounts with so high a wing, 
As of eternal things she doubts can move, 
She proofs of her eternity can bring, 
E'en when she strives the contrary to prove ! 

" For e'en the thoughts of immortality, 

Being an act done without the body's aid, 

Shows that herself alone could move and be, 

Although the body in the grave were laid. 



TO ANOTHER THE STRAY ARROW. 203 

" Her only end is never-ending bliss, 

"Which is the eternal face of G-od to see, 
"Who last of all ends and first of causes is : 
And to do this, she must eternal be. 

" How senseless, then, and dead a soul hath he, 
"Who thinks his soul doth with his body die ! 
Or thinks not so, but so ivould have it be, 
Tliat he might sin vjith more security. 

"For though these light and vicious persons say, 
1 Our soul is but a smoke or airy blast, 
"Which during life doth in her nostrils play, 
And when we die doth turn to wind at last : ' 

" Although they say, ' Come, let us eat and drink ; 
Our life is but a spark which quickly dies ; ' 
Though thus they say, they know not u-hat to think, 
But in their minds ten thousand doubts arise. 

" Therefore do heretics desire to spread 
Their light opinions, like these epicures; 
For so their staggering thoughts are comforted, 
And other men's assent their doubt assures. 

" Yet though these men against their conscience strive, 
There are some sparks within their guilty breasts 
"Which cannot be extinct, but still revive ; 

That, though they would, they cannot quite be beasts." 



CHAPTER XXX. 

RECONNOITRING INFIDEL POSITIONS. 

K WlpJRUTH ! Your inquiries concerning it are not unwel- 
r %J^h come. It will be well if you can say as much of my 
***5> p replies ! A Frenchman candidly remarked that to 
such as are determined not to relinquish error, truth must ever 
be unpalatable. To the well-meaning and honest-hearted, truth, 
he thought, could never give offence, even if carried up to the 
highest point of plain-dealing and faithful remonstrance ; that, if 
it come from a friend, it will ever be distinguished from the 
rancor of an enemy, as the friendly probe of a physician from 
the dagger of an assassin ! An admission which, I hope, you 
will not lose sight of ! 

Such " queries " as yours were, perhaps, never so rife in 
this town as now among all grades of unbelievers. A great 
revival of religion is great for creating such effects always, and 
in all places, more or less, as the leaven of infidelity happens 
to be diffused. The Gospel fully and faithfully preached, 
awakens attention, like a sudden blaze of lightning and thunder 
among the clouds, setting some quaking and others query- 
ing. The principles of Christianity, when brought thus into 
action, are too tremendous in their nature and consequences 
to permit men remaining long without sentiment regarding 



EECONXOITEIXG IXFID'EL POSITIONS. 205 

them, favorable or adverse. We may say tine same regarding 
the preacher! The hopes and fears of the people are too 
much interested to allow of a long continuance of indifference 
or neutrality. To be neither for nor against is an anomaly, as 
Christ hints : " He that is not for me is against me ; and he 
that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." A divine in 
Switzerland insisted that the intolerance of the Gospel arises 
from a principle laid down by our Lord, by which it considers 
every man an enemy who is not & friend. Rely upon this : when 
the Gospel is preached, this/ac^ soon develops itself in the hearts 
of the hearers. I think we may safely say of every man who 
holds out against the Gospel, when thus preached, that he is a 
skeptic upon some point or other, which arms him against its 
claims, and renders him immovable. 

It is impossible to conceive of any fact so immense and so 
overpowering as that o^religion. To enable a man to stand in 
its presence unmoved requires the assistance of a doubt, equal 
in strength to him who said, " My name is legion." Even in 
such a case, I have learned not to despair. A sinner who, in 
the bottom of his heart, recognises another great fact, that it is 
optional with him whether he entertain this doubt or reject it, 
is not a hopeless case ! I believe with the celebrated old 
Thomas Adams, that the devils have faith, but they have no 
hope ; that hope is the life of Christians (ay, and a life amid 
much death in the hearts of sinners !) and that the want of 
hope makes devils. Devils believe and tremble, but they have 
no hope. Our faith would make us tremble, too, were it not 
for hope. On this principle I account for so much of that 
" stony air " observable in some, rather than an entire sur- 
render to infidelity. 



206 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Indifference is one of the most difficult opponents I meet 
with in any country. Persecution, in certain forms, is nothing 
to it. A disposition to inquire or investigate is an angel to 
it. An irritable sinner is assailable, and may receive a back- 
handed blow from truth, if thrown off his guard, which may 
bring him to his knees. How often have I armed myself in 
going forth against indifference, and returned from the attack 
weak-handed and discouraged ! The heaviest pieces of my 
pulpit artillery had been as ineffectual against it, apparently, 
as the chirping of grasshoppers. What an incubus of this sort 
of indifference we had upon us when we commenced this 
effort ! It was said, if we held on thus, we should certainly 
drive the people out of their senses! when it was evident 
they had not been in their senses for a great while ! At any 
rate, they were senseless enough — had fallen a prey to spiritual 
death, hopeless as the scene in " the valley of dry bones" or 
next to it. " Few," remarked one, " succumb under acute dis- 
eases ; the majority die of the chlorosis and marasmus of com- 
plete indifference. The words ' church, divine service, and 
sermon ' make them yawn. They bear the brand-marks of 
impending judgment, and the signs, if not.of rejection, yet of 
the capability of it. Satan even does not seem to think these 
people worthy of an energetic attack. Like dead trees, they 
fall to him of themselves, and he finds them in his net before 
he spreads it." A mournful picture ! Compare it with the 
state of things around us. Not one has gone out of his 
senses, in the sense predicted by formalism ; but what mul- 
titudes have found their senses ! The dead trees are alive 
again ! Indifference has given way ! 

But, as is always the case in such a work, skeptics are 



RECONNOITRING INFIDEL POSITIONS. 207 

wide awake also ! They seem to be much of the Spanish Jesuits' 
minds — " Beatus qui pradicat verbum inauditum " — " Happy is 
he who proclaims a doctrine not yet heard ! " They remind 
us of the Athenians of old, who spent their time in nothing else 
but either to tell or hear some new thing. (Acts xvii. 21.) 
Demosthenes, were he alive and among us, might with pro- 
priety transfer his impression of the people of Athens to 

(and by the way, it is curious to notice the coincidence 

of the orator's remark with that in Acts) : " I found them in- 
quiring perpetually in the place of public resort, if there are 
any news." May the poor unbelievers among us, who are yet 
doing homage to the hemisphere of darkness, turn to the light 
of the Gospel — turn from " lying vanities " and the husks of 
falsehood " to the truth which is after godliness" moulded after 
it — that truth which follows after godliness, helps the soul to 
overtake it, and, with both truth and godliness, enter into 
heaven. Amen ! 

Skeptics, though boastful, are usually dissatisfied witb that 
which they mistake for truth. No more truth is in it than that 
Satan is " an angel of light" whatever transformations it may 
undergo. (2 Cor. xi. 14, 15.) Error, like Satan, may be so 
transformed ; but, mismanaging its drapery, its nature and origin 
may be seen in its dusky complexion ! Impatience of contra- 
diction has led it so to spring round and round of late, in cer- 
tain arenas of controversy, to an imprudent showing of " the 
cloven foot " of its " father the devil." John viii. 44 is worthy 
of your closest attention. It contains one " truth " which may 
be of great value to you. 

These late dissensions among the churches have made these 
skeptics bold, as if all religion were falling to pieces. As Stil- 



208 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

ling-fleet remarks, " Weaker heads when they once see the bat- 
tlements shake, are apt to suspect that the foundation itself is 
not firm enough, and to conclude, if anything be called in ques- 
tion, that there is nothing certain ! " How applicable to many 
now, as in 1650! It is amusing how they change front so 
often ! — this is not safe " in the presence of an enemy," in 
military tactics! They want to know the truth, but when 
truth appears they reject it, as the Jews did their true Mes- 
siah when he came ! They profess a liking for truth, if they 
did but know it — have an altar for it, as the Athenians had, 
" To the unknown God. 11 And if it was really so that the 
people of Athens never allowed an idol to be placed upon that 
altar, it is much to their credit. AVould that we could say as 
much of these skeptics ! To exalt error in the place of " un- 
known truth 11 is to fall beneath the dignity of the Athenians. 
Never yet have I found two infidel writers to agree. Their 
disagreement in this town is notorious ; except in one thing — to 
oppose the truth, as revealed in the Bible. 

The definitions of truth, by our modern skeptics, remind 
one of the squabbles of Grecian and Roman philosophers of 
ancient times as to " the chief good " — their favorite phrase for 
happiness — which called forth no less than two hundred and 
eighty-eight opinions ! All these were diverse, agreeing only 
upon one point, viz., in reasoning from false principles and 
from wrong premises. Plutarch tells us of a thoughtful and 
sincere man who, after hearing the philosophers wrangle upon 
" the chief good," as to what it consisted of — some assigning 
it to one thing and some to another — like yourself, fearing he 
should miss of true happiness, resolved, if possible, to acquire 
the whole, hastened to the market-place and bought up all the 



RECONNOITRING INFIDEL POSITIONS. 209 

good things he could find, certain that he could not miss it, 
if the philosophers were right ! Poor man ! he was disap- 
pointed. Nothing was wanting that his person or stomach 
could crave, but his soul, finding no food suitable to its nature, 
was as dissatisfied as ever. Real happiness eluded his grasp, 
as truth and happiness do yours ! He sought it not in God, 
and then doubted whether any such good existed. " Who 
will show us any good f " inquired some of old, when assailed 
with unbelief. (Ps. iv. 6.) I marvel not that you have had a 
similar temptation concerning truth. 

The opinions of ancient philosophers, and those of our 
modern unbelievers, are all chips from the same block of 
error — threads drawn from the same goat-fleece of depravity, 
which never hold together — streams from the same troubled 
fountain of the unrenewed heart ; so many heads of the same 
old hydra of speculative atheism — that old self-constructing 
Polypous, Satan's masterpiece 1 begotten of everlasting doubt, 
and by its infernal touch transforming men into everlasting 
doubters, until they go where doubts end and devils tremble. 

One opinion occurs to me which prevailed among the 
ancient philosophers. It was this: that "the chief good" 
consisted in having the animal nature subjected to the rational. 
This opinion was associated with a severe discipline. But, as 
one observes, the animal, in spite of all they could do, rose 
above the rational, and the brute ran away with the man! 
Gigantic fallen nature proved itself another Samson against the 
unregenerated powers of the soul. Reason, self-confident, 
forged many chains to bind it, but they parted like threads 
touched by flame. Reason was then " consulting physician," 
itself sick, or, at its best estate, broken-witted — a crazy doctor 



210 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

undertaking to cure a delirious patient. I need only point you 

to some of the best expounders in the clubs at , and in 

street, for a modern exemplification ! 

The victory of the rational nature over the animal can 
only be achieved on Christian principles. " Except a man be 
born again he cannot see the kingdom of God," says Jesus; 
and it is equally true, until a similar change passes upon the 
soul, there can be no such victory. " Born of God " — " a new 
creature in Christ — old things have jiassed away, and all things 
become new" — are the scriptural intimations of this great 
change ; repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the instrument thereof. 




CHAPTER XXXI. 



-^OASTING! Ay! no lack of that! It is their 
jgf method of keeping up courage, and inspiring heart 
and boldness in their companions. What has a sen- 
sible man to boast of in their notions ? This revival has not 
kindled the spark of infernal enmity — has not originated it, I 
mean ; but it has fanned it into what it is — not against us so 
much as against the Gospel, and against the Lord, its Author. 
As a German divine observes, Satan has seduced them to join 
in his colossal attempts to war against the power and majesty 
of God in the Christian religion, and to bury the whole world 
of religions and moral sentiments in the gigantic grave of an 
atheistic materialism : " antiquated ideas" he says, is the sar- 
cophagus in which they would place the Gospel. And of this 
they would boast. Unhappy men ! Let us hope and pray. 

If the truth w r ere known, many of them to this hour have 
similar embarrassments to w T hat that celebrated American 
orator and statesman, John Randolph, had — a mother's early 
instructions and counsels and prayers. Early initiated into 
the skepticism of the French Revolution, both by books 
and companionship, he confessed, but for the example and in- 
structions of his mother in early life, he would have been a 



212 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

French atheist. In a letter to a friend, he said: "When I can 
just remember, I slept in the same bed with my widowed 
mother. Each night, before she put me to bed, I repeated on 
my knees before her the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed ; 
each morning, kneeling in the bed, I put up my little hands in 
prayer in the same form. These lessons, I am now con- 
scious, are of more value to me than all I have ever learned 
from my preceptors and compeers." In his retrospections, 
he tells another: "They used to call me a French infidel, 
because I was a Frenchman in politics, which was unjust ; 
but the truth is, I would have been a French atheist but for 
the recollection of the time when my mother made me put 
my little hands together and say, ' Our Father which art in 
heaven? &c." What a lesson for mothers have we here ! Had 
Voltaire, Rousseau, and Paine had such mothers, the world 
would not have been cursed by such standard-bearers of Satan. 
They have their successors. Well would it be for some around 
us if, like Randolph, faulty though he was — if, like him, they 
took pleasure in consulting the Scriptures. When triumph- 
antly reelected to Congress, instead of being elated, he wrote 
to a friend who had congratulated him, " I do assure you, with 
the utmost sincerity, that so far as I am personally concerned, 
I cannot but regret the partiality of my friends. I am en- 
grossed by sentiments of a far different character ; this great 
concern presses me by day and by night, almost to the en- 
grossing of my thoughts. I am never so free from uneasi- 
ness as when reading the Testament, or hearing some able 
preacher." 

In reply to the question, " How may I be assured of the 
will of God, and of my acceptability to him ? " to the New 



213 

Testament I must again refer you. Read, believe, obey. " If 
any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether 
it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John vii. 17.) 
This is our Lord's own testimony and promise. It is written, 
"God commandeth all men everywhere to repent." And 
again, " This is his commandment, that we should believe in his 
Son Jesus Christ. 1 '' When you render obedience to these 
commandments, then shall you know the doctrine that it is of 
God. " The Spirit itself beareth witness ivith our spirit that 
we are the children of God." (Rom. viii. 16.) He who enjoys 
such a witness has no lack of evidence, and comfort too. 
Stopping short of this — to refer to Randolph again — was the 
cause of his sad state of mind, which he moaned out in a letter 
to a friend, thus : " In the most important of human concerns 
I have made no advancement; on the contrary, as is always 
the case, when we do not advance, we recede. I have fallen 
back. My mind is rilled with misgivings and perplexities that 
leave no repose. Of the necessity of forgiveness I have the 
strongest conviction ; but I cannot receive any assurance that 
it has been accorded to me. I have humbly sought comfort 
where alone it is effectually to be obtained, but without suc- 
cess." To another he said : " Once, of all the books of holy 
writ, the Psalms were my special aversion ; but thanks be to 
God, they have long constituted a favorite portion of that 
treasure of wisdom, and my version is scored and marked from 
one end to the other." There is a wonderful majesty and as- 
surance discovered in the word of God, when we receive it as 
such, and entirely rely upon it, in faith and obedience. But 
after such a discovery, if we " fall away " from it, the conse- 
quences are very serious We grieve the Holy Spirit, and 



214 ARROWS FROM MY QUITER. 

Satan triumphs, and either deep despondency or hardness of 
heart follows. 

You may, perhaps, remember my remarks to a friend of 
yours, regarding Plato's acknowledgment of the necessity of 
some divine revelation, by which, in this life, certain truths 
might be discovered beyond mere conjecture ; that, till then, 
if truth could not be found out without some accompani- 
ment of doubt, the best human reason could do was to fix 
upon that which seemed to be the most probable ! His idea 
of a "raft" struck your friend — reason, constructing its 
own frail raft, by which to sail this stormy sea of life, timid, 
and uncertain as to the port of destination ; and his inge- 
nuous relapse into the felt necessity of some authoritative 
communication from heaven, in which, as in a well-appointed 
ship, the voyage of life might be made fearless of danger ! 
How sad to find so many in a worse condition than Plato, now 
that a revelation from heaven has been vouchsafed to the 
world ! I say, in a worse condition ; because it pleased God to 
reveal doctrines to us which Plato never knew, but with which 
your old friends in unbelief have had so long to contend, and 
now more than ever — poor souls ! Your friend allowed there 
was " a melancholy beauty " in those sentiments of Plato ; but 
how mournful to see men persisting in such a raft-making 
mania, while the heaven-constructed ship — Divine Revelation 
— is at their doors. It needs no prophet among us to foretell 
their fate who venture the hopes and hazards of eternity afloat 
on such a raft. Bible -despising presumption is destined to ter- 
rible calamities. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



TO THE SAME THE BIBLE. 




6 Plato's idea of the difference between reason's raft 



1 and faith's ship — a revelation from God — pleases you. 
Come on board, sir. Plato would, were he upon earth, 
and gladly, too. Let us hope that he gained the heavenly 
port upon his doubtful raft. It was all the Almighty thought 
proper to place within his reach. If lost, it was not for 
disregarding a book which he had never read nor seen ; or 
for denying a Saviour, of whom he never heard. The case of 
your friend's " Club " is widely different. 

2. Several years ago, when in Canada, I had the pleasure 
of perusing a volume of the late Mr. McXichol's works. One 
of his illustrations, showing that the Bible was fitted for man, 
and man for the Bible, was ingenious and striking. I took 
a few hasty notes of it at the time. Looking over them this 
morning, it occurred to me they might be profitable to him 
whom I now address — and to others, let us hope. My notes, 
on looking them over, are so meagre, and having no access to 
the volume to refresh my memory, I may as well confess to 
an intention of adding a little here and there, as we proceed 
with the singular but striking illustration. 

We will suppose I am entirely ignorant that there is on 



216 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

earth the shadow of such an art as that of a mariner, or that 
there is such a vast reservoir of water as the ocean. I am at 
last made acquainted with the fact, and I bend my steps to the 
sea-shore. 

Lo ! I behold an immense pile of timber, but very compact, 
floating on the wave. I inquire eagerly, u What is that?" I 
am told it is the hull of a ship of considerable tonnage ; that 
its design is to brin£ invaluable treasures from bevond the 
sea. But I ask, " How do you mean to convey such a large 
body to so great a distance?" It is jestingly replied, " By 
oars, to be sure ? " I ask again, " What arc oars ? " They are 
described to me, with the assurance that the Greeks and Ro 
mans used them with great success. I begin to think it quite 
possible that the vessel might be thus transported. 

Some days after, when walking along the same coast, I be- 
hold a singular and confused apparatus of lengthened poles, and 
ropes and canvas, scattered on the ground. I study them with 
intense curiosity, but for my life I cannot comprehend their 
use. On inquiry, I am informed they are intended to be reared 
in a certain arrangement on the surface of the said hull I be- 
held yesterday, with a view to her more speedy passage 
through the waters, by means of the wind. This is a new 
idea. It comes as a flash of light upon the mass of materials 
which lie before me, although there are many of the pieces 
and fragments I can by no means understand from any descrip- 
tion. 

Finally, I see the whole applied to the vessel. My convic- 
tion and admiration of their uses are increased. I now see 
how this and the other piece of cordage, and so on, which, 
so far as I could judge, were useless, are now essential to 



TO THE SAME THE BIBLE. 217 

the rest. Behold the well-appointed ship floating, as Keats 
observes, 

" Floating between the waves and air, 
Each "glad to claim a thing so fair ; 
Her white wings to the sunshine gleaming 
In anchor'd rest — bright ensigns streaming, 
As if they wish'd away to fly 
From the proud ship they glorify ! " 

Well, I am invited to take a voyage in this ship. I go on 
board. The anchor is weighed, the helm taken, the sails are 
shaken loose, the wind blows, the canvas receives it, and the 
new locomotive world, to my amazement, moves onward 
through the ocean, and soon landmarks and land sink in the 
sea, and our ship, 

"Alone on the deep, as the moon in the sky, 
A phantom of beauty. " 

The ship moves on, and in a style of majesty and swift- 
ness which I would have pronounced a fancy a few weeks since, 
hearing of it only from the representation of another person. 
I now, to my own knowledge, find the use of everything, from 
the cable to the slightest cord, and from the mainsail to the 
smallest sheet that flutters in the breeze. All is animation on 
board — " our ship, like a child of the sun," arrayed in morn- 
ing glory, presses on gallantly. The sailors are singing 
among the shrouds, a joyous laugh on deck, and the music of 
ripple and spray outside, as she surges onward to her port, and 
a passenger here and there reminding one of Parnell's lines : 

" Who, as he watches her silently ghding, 
Remembers that wave after wave is dividing 
10 



218 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Bosoms that sorrow and guilt could not sever — 

Hearts that are parted and broken for ever. 

One deems that he watches afloat in the wave 

The death-bed of hope, and the young spirit's grave ! " 

Other ships join us, and we traverse the deep together, a noble 
and well-appointed fleet. 

Let us apply this illustration. The hull of that ship I 
compare to our frail nature deprived of the precious materials 
provided in the Bible. Like a naked bark, I see a human 
being floating on the dangerous deep of life, idly, and without 
aim, because destitute of that high and regulated impulse by 
which he might gain the port of eternal bliss — but, without 
which, he never can ; as well try 

" To cross without a magnet undiscovered seas." 

We will suppose I am entirely ignorant of the Bible. I take 
it up for the first time. I look it over. I here find what ap- 
pears to me to be a confused mass of materials. I begin to specu- 
late upon its parts without a due regard to their use, and I 
erroneously condemn the whole. I return to it, and gaze upon 
an assemblage of various materials, as I did upon that disjointed 
tackling separate from the hull for which it was intended. 

But, a person begins to explain to me their use. He first 
begins with man ; his soul and body, and circumstances in 
which he is found. He then explains the fitness of the Scrip- 
tures, through all their varieties (as the tackling for the ship), 
and tells me they are designed to carry him forward toward 
eternal perfection. I begin to comprehend the several parts 
of the Bible — the general combination ; the nicety of instances 
in minute application ; the skilfulness in mechanism, contriv- 
ance, and importance of design, surpassing far that singular 



TO THE SAME— THE BIBLE. 219 

mass of materials prepared for the floating hull. But the 

water for the vessel, and the vessel for the water ; the tackling 

I 
for the hull, and the hull for the tackling. The. .Bible for 

man, and man for the Bible. The adaptation appears to me 
complete, in theory ; will it be so practically ? 

An instance occurs : a maw, hitherto regardless of God, 
of heaven, and hitherto unacquainted with the Bible, or un- 
controlled by it — motionless, or only guided at random by 
some fitful expedients devised by ignorance. I behold those 
materials in the Bible, which appear to me so disjointed and 
confused, properly supplied to this creature. Thus furnished, 
he begins to move forward in a steady and new direction, 
onward and heavenward, like a vessel furnished with strong and 
skilfully constructed masts and rigging, with sails swelling be- 
fore the invisible wind, and off upon some important voyage. 
I then behold another and another fitted out in like manner, 
and steering out across the ocean of life for the port of glory. 
Finally, I myself, so long an interested looker-on, begin to feel 
my wants and peril, and a gracious impulse to move out from 
my inglorious position, and weigh anchor also, and spread sail 
for the same port of destination. But I am entirely unpro- 
vided for the voyage. Not a mast have I to poise, nor 
sail to spread, nor rudder to direct, nor compass, nor chart. I 
look toward the Bible. After so many have been fitted out 
for the sea of life, is there enough left for me ? " Yes ! and for 
millions more like you," says a voice. Proper application is 
made ; I, too, am supplied. I bid farewell to the land of sin 
and vain glory. The breezes which blow from Calvary waft 
me onward. Rapidly and pleasantly now the voyage of life is 
passing. More than once I have caught a glimpse of the 



220 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

heavenly coast ; and, by the command of " the Captain of our 
salvation" I shall ere long drop into port — ay ! like the Alex- 
andria ship into the Roman port, with top and top-gallants 
up ! And there are quite a fleet of us, and the voice of joy 
and thanksgiving is on our decks, each singing his much- 
loved sonnet — and my happy soul siugs it, too, melodiously : 

" When for eternal worlds I steer, 
The seas are calm, the skies are clear, 
A.nd faith, in lively exercise, 
The distant hillc of Canaan spies, 
My soul with joy she claps her wings, 
And loud her lovely sonnet sings, 
Vain world, adieu ! 

11 With cheerful hope her eyes explore 
The landmarks on the distant shore, 
The tree of life, the crystal stream, 
The golden streets and pastures green, 
Then, with what joy she claps her wings, 
And loud her lovely sonnet sings, 
Yain world, adieu ! 

11 The nearer still she draws to land, 
More eagerly her powers expand ; 
With steady helm, and well-bent sail, 
Her anchor drops within the veil ; 
Again with joy she claps her wings, 
And loud her lovely sonnet sings, 
Vain world, adieu ! " 




CHAPTER XXXIII. 

TO THE SAME, AWAKENED — GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 

(HE attention of " a hearer." Your " view " is correct. 
Reject the Bible, " and it leaves a man like a thing 
Wy^ of chance, to sink or swim, upon the vexed waters of 
life, 'mid perilous waves of human opinion." Ay ! like a ship 
without anchorage, port or shelter, chart or compass — resem- 
bling him of whom it was said, 

" Sped by the hurricane's wing, 
His compassless bark, lone, weltering, dark." 

2. Reject the word of God, and we wander, in endless mazes 
lost. Receiving the Bible as such — the word of God — you have 
t that to rely upon, instead of the opinions of men without 
number, diverse as their features, all as fallible as ourselves. 
To find the truth and the w r ill of God, after we have rejected the 
Bible from our confidence, amidst such a heterogeneous mass, 
would be like searching for a needle in a stack of straw ! The 
contradictory opinions of the leading minds of that society is 
notorious. To give your will over to such for education, 
would be a rash act. I question whether you would risk much 



222 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

of your property to their honor. Why then trust your pre- 
cious soul ? To allow your will to be schooled by such — nay, 
be fooled, and afterward commit yourself to the guidance of 
such a will — would be, as one sharply observed, to place your- 
self at the disposal of &fool and an enemy ! " To fall into the 
hands of the living God," after having fallen into such hands, 
is, as the apostle hints, " a fearful thing." (Heb. x. 31.) I am 
persuaded you have more sense. That you have been strongly 
tempted to such a course, is pretty evident. May God save 
you from the calamity hinted at in the above text ; for incensed 
justice can never be appeased in hell. A sinner sinning eter- 
nally, must be in collision with divine justice eternally. 

3. Observe two things : First, the Bible is a unity. For 
though it was transmitted to earth by the medium of a num- 
ber of writers, they have not contradicted each other; and 
they declare the will of the same God, and of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Second, observe the operations of your own mind ; I 
mean the effects of any set of principles, for or against that 
book ; their respective tendencies in leading you to virtue or 
vice — to purity or to impurity — to honesty or to dishonesty — to 
truthfulness in all your conversations, or to carelessness as to 
the truth — to sobriety or to levity, if not to the haunts of the 
drunkard or debauchee. Observe their effects upon your con- 
science, in making it soft and tender or hard and callous; upon 
your judgment, will, and reason ; upon your temper and dis- 
position of heart ; whether such principles tend to make you 
a better or a worse man in the various relations in life, as well as 
in the hour of temptation. It is thus I would have you judge 
which class of principles or opinions is most likely to have 
the sanction and approbation of a holy and just God. I have 



i 



AWAKENED GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 223 

no fears that your verdict will go against the Bible. Then be- 
lieve, and act accordingly. 

4. That which leads you to the fear of God, and to the 
love of God, to self-denial, and to repentance and faith in 
Christ, and earnest desires for salvation, is surely of God. 
The impulse is from Him. It is God himself commenting on 
that command in his own word, " Work out your own salva- 
tion with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in 
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Phil. ii. 12, 
13.) Persons in your state of mind frequently illustrate this pas- 
sage in their experience, before ever they know there is such a 
text in the Scriptures. 

5. Ponder that declaration, " It is God which worketh in 
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Wonderful, 
is it not ? How infinite the condescension ! Observe : when 
it is thus, the will of God and the human will are brought in 
contact. The will is the master-wheel of the human intellect ; 
all "the lesser wheels" are set in motion and governed by 
this. The results are seen on the dial-plate of the conversa- 
tion. That was a good remark of one, that when Christ has 
won the will, he has won the man ; and when Satan has won 
the will, he has won the man; and when sin has lost the will, it 
has lost the man. He thought there was much of the heart in the 
will, or God would not have said, " My son, give me thy heart." 

******* 
It is just as you view it ! One long since gone into eter- 
nity called the s will the Fort Royal of the soul — that strong- 
hold that stands out stoutest and longest against all the as- 
saults of Heaven. He considered all to be won when the will 
is won ; the castle is won— heart, judgment, reason — the entire 



224 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

man. It is a great point in preaching, sir, to bring the will of 
the sinner over on the side of truth and righteousness. 

It will be well to follow up that thought. Baxter's thought 
was somewhat similar to mine, if I recollect right, thus: 
" That will that is not fetched from God, and moved by his 
will, as the lesser wheels in a clock are moved by the first 
wheel, and by the poise, is no better than self-will. A will 
not dependent upon God's will, is an idol, usurping the pre- 
rogative of God ; it is to make a god of self." He insisted 
that the will of man is, or should be, the terrestrial throne of 
God; there he must reign, and reigning, he invests the will 
with the command of the inferior faculties ; that to be loyal 
unto Him who sitteth on the throne, the will should not have 
one wish or desire, unless it can prove or infer that it is the 
will of God. 

Hence the necessity of a revelation from God! To will 
what God wills, it is necessary to know what that will is ! In 
the Bible this is plainly revealed. This is good argument for 
that book. It is therefore of the first importance you should 
will to believe the Bible as a revelation of God's will concern- 
ing you. It is to this very crisis those grand facts which 
"make up the internal evidence of the Scriptures" are de- 
signed to lead your inquiring mind. Having once received the 
Bible thus allow, of no abatement in your faith. Reverence 
entirely its decisions. Allow of no appeal from its authority. 
And that you may not be tempted to seek occasion, give it the 
entire authority over your will, and by your will rule yourself 
altogether according to the will of God. When the love of 
God is shed abroad in your heart, your will shall then have an 
easy rule — rather, 1 ve shall rule : * 



AWAKEXED GLIMPSES OF TRUTH. 225 

" Sink down, ye separating hills, 
Let sin and death remove ; 
'Tis love that drives my chariot wheels, 
And death must yield to love." 

That it may be thus, your sins must be forgiven through 
faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, and your soul regenerated, or 
born of God. 

A remark of an old divine may be in place here. It is 
this : " Sin is not ripe" till it reaches the will, though it enter 
by the flesh and the senses. It is not found nor called sin till 
it reach the will" Ponder that observation. It may be of 
essential benefit to you when tempted. I like to tell believers 
that holiness is not ripe till it reaches the will also. It is- not 
formed, nor found, nor called holiness until it reaches the will ; 
thus the will, in a state of entire conformity to God's will, 
governs the entire man. Indeed, holiness is nothing else but 
a complete conformity to the will of God. 

What is done in these short addresses must be done quickly. 
We have had but little more time lately than barely to glance 
at some of those great principles out of which the grace of re- 
pentance may spring. Forget not that Jesus has declared, 
" Ye must be born again ;" otherwise, to say nothing of the loss 
of heaven, we may say of your good purposes, as did Caesar 
of the works of Cicero, "They are as sand without lime."' I 
believe with Cecil, that but a small matter is accomplished 
when we have persuaded an unregenerate man to believe as we 
do ! We have as little to boast as if we had succeeded in lay- 
ing a dead man straight who was crooked before ! 

The best of moral men, as well as the worst among the im- 
moral, stand in need of this change to render them acceptable 

10* 



226 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

to God and fit for heaven. It is a thorough change. " Words 
have lost their meaning," as one says, ''unless this change, 
being born again, is a radical one — a change great in its char- 
acter and lasting in its consequences — a change that reaches 
downward into the deepest recesses of the soul, and forward 
into the ages of eternity." Look that you may be emptied of 
self and self-sufficiency before you are filled with divine grace 
and power. The Israelites in the wilderness gathered no manna 
so long as the dough lasted which they brought out of Egypt ! 
While any of that remained in the camp, no manna from hea- 
ven fell around the camp. You are to be clothed with the 
righteousness of Christ ; but the Spirit of God never puts that 
upon the top of the rags of self-righteousness. And so St. 
Paul expresses it in his own experience : " That I may win 
Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteous- 
ness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith 
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.'''' (Phil, 
iii. 9.) Christ must be all or nothing. The rags of the old 
righteousness must be entirely stripped off your soul before 
you can be robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Con- 
sider these things, and may God give you a right understand- 
ing of them ! Hearken to my text : Col. i. 19. 



CHAPTER XXXIY. 

TO ANOTHER THE BIBLE DEFENDED. 

C^npjHE old maxim that the adamant must be polished by 
'-Oft its own dust, and heaven seen by its own light, was 
Wjf^l never truer than when applied to the Bible and Chris- 
tianity, and the disability of skepticism. The Bible is that 
adamant. Its texts are as the dust to the adamant ; the texts of 
one part of Scripture polish or illustrate another. Thus we find 
that about two hundred and sixty places of the Old Testament 
are cited in the New, and for this very purpose. We may 
say the same of Christianity, one principle of which polishes 
or illustrates another. Infidelity has no material of sufficient 
solidity of texture to effect what you propose. The human 
brain alone is too soft to produce anything to affect either ! 
Hell itself cannot forge or temper a chisel hard enough for the 
purpose ! All are at fault. Thus, after fastening upon a text, 
and forbidding the aid of any other, you turn it round and 
round, and finding it impregnable, fling it away ! We cannot 
see the heavens by torch-light, or gas-light, or oil-light, or bon- 
fires, or even by the glare of a volcano ! Heaven must be seen 
by its own light. The Bible and Christianity must be seen 
by their own light. What the sun and moon are to the sky, 
the Bible and Christianity are to the firmament of theology. 
The light in which they are to be seen and the weapons by 



228 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

-which they are to be assailed must be of equal authority. 
Find them if you can ; otherwise you resemble one who would 
see the sky by rush-light, or who attempts to shake a mountain 
with the stroke of a feather, or one who refuses to credit the 
testimony of the king of day until he has examined the orb 
and his beams by the light of a tallow candle, or he who will 
not credit " the testimony of the rocks " to the facts of geology 
unless he can dissolve them by his breath, or first open their 
seams by the application of a straw! The Bible is much 
above you every way, sir. Believe it, or leave it alone, for 
you cannot invalidate its testimony ! 

Oh ! may God pity your poor distracted soul, and bring you 
to your " right mind," for you seem far from it at present. 
However, I have often observed that when Satan is about to 
lose a subject, he exerts himself in strange ways to prevent it ! 
But for the value of the soul at stake, and the momentous in- 
terests involved, I could have laughed ere this many a time at 
the hawk-like gyrations and infernal ingenuity of this old soul- 
hunter when hard put to it. I have given him some trouble 
in my day ; and I am under the power of considerations you 
have never imagined, to preserve my own poor soul from fall- 
ing into his hands. 

One of two things is plain to me : either you understand 
these doctrines and hate them, or you misunderstand them, 
and shun them with the prejudice of ignorance. A farmer the 
other day employed his scythe in mowing down grasses and 
herbs for his cattle, indifferent as to their names and medicinal 
uses. Not so a bystander — an herbalist, ready to appropriate 
them to yet nobler uses. It is one thing to be able to read 
the names of medicines labelled on the drawers in the shop of 



THE BIBLE DEFENDED. 229 

a druggist, and another to know their medicinal virtues. He 
who has studied them thoroughly will not be joked nor jeered 
out of his knowledge, by the ignorance or prejudice of one who 
knows nothing about them. This let me say for myself, if 
the principles of religion are exalted high on my lips, I bless 
my God they do strike down deep in my heart. With 
regard to yourself, I can no more doubt that you have read 
enough in the Bible to satisfy conscience that you must repent 
and believe in Christ, or be condemned, than doubt whether 
you know the English language ! Also, that there is a record 
in your memory, such as John Bunyan had, when you heard a 
voice within your mind, as distinctly as he heard it : " Will 
you leave your sins and go to heaven, or have your sins and 
go to hell ? " Is it not so ? In the vocabulary of unbelief you 
have succeeded admirably ; but it is questionable whether you 
have been equally successful in teaching it to your conscience, 
or in banishing old principles, realities, and possibilities. St. 
Paul thinks not. He tells us to reject a heretic after the first 
and second admonition, for which he gives us three reasons : 
" Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, being 
condemned in himself'' — that is, he is conscious of his own 
insincerity in acting against the truth which he knows. 
(Titus iii. 10, 11.) I would not, however, forget that it is written, 
some are given up to " strong delusions that they should be- 
lieve a lie ; that they all might be damned who believe not the 
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. ii. 11, 
12.) A man should make himself very sure of some very great 
advantages, who believes a lie rather than the truth ! What 
thinkest thou ? 



230 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

In reply : The ancient Turks never shunned a person who 
had the plague, because they believed it was written on every 
man's forehead, at his birth, when he should die. In such cases 
they usually pointed to the forehead ! If you will excuse a 
parody, I trust my forehead is sufficiently fortified to prevent 
either my faith or practice from being affected by the plague 
of unbelief, with which you are so grievously afflicted ! The 
word " reject," in the passage I quoted the other evening, 
means not to allow a man who is a heretic to remain a member 
of the church to disturb its peace. Titus was a pastor, and 
this direction was necessary from an apostle, as to excommu- 
nicate a person from the church of Christ was considered a 
great calamity. Men think too lightly of the matter in our 
times. The passage does not prohibit efforts for the salvation 
of such an one ; so you may let that pass ; I have not travelled 
beyond the limits of my charter ! There are certain tempta- 
tions which hang like bullets on the eyelids of the understand- 
ing, so that the light of truth cannot penetrate. St. Paul 
speaks about having the eyes of our understanding " enlightened, 
that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the 
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints ; " and of others 
" whose minds are blinded, because of the ignorance that is in 
them.'''' As to yourself, you are the best judge, unless you are 
like the blind woman of whom Seneca speaks, who insisted 
that the fault was not in her eyes, but in the absence of light 
from the room ! It is not best you should be over-positive. 
A light may have reached the eyes of your understanding, and 

found them closed — like the windows of that house in 

street, which would require light to be armed like the light- 



THE BIBLE DEFENDED. 231 

nings of heaven to pierce an entrance into those dark cham- 
bers beyond ! 

The apostle imputes such blindness to Satan, whom he 
•calls " the god of this world ; " he who " blinds the minds of 
those that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of 
Christ should shine unto them.' 1 ' 1 Now mark — " those that 
believe not" he blinds. They are at first disinclined to believe, 
then resolved not to believe, and then Satan so blinds them 
that they cannot believe. Old Elymas, the sorcerer, Paul 
scrupled not to call " a child of the devil, full of all subtilty 
and mischief and an enemy of all righteousness." His father 
the devil had blinded his mind, and God, by a word from the 
lips of Paul, blinded the eyes of his body. Between Satan 
and God, he had an unhappy time of it, poor sinner ! He 
would not believe that the Sun of Righteousness had risen on 
the world, and allowed Satan to close his eyes against his beams ! 
God so closed his outward eyes he could not see the natural sun 
nor its beams. His talent for doubting was directed into another 
cbannel — so that in searching for some one to lead him, he 
might, if so disposed, go on doubting whether the orb of day 
had yet risen on the world. He refused to credit the Scrip- 
tures concerning Jesus, and the testimony of those who had 
been saved through the atoning death, because he allowed the 
hand of Satan to close the eyes of his mind ; and the Lord 
by his hand quite sealed the eyes of his body, at Paul's word : 
" Behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be 
blind, not seeing the sun " — " then there fell on him a mist and 
a darkness, and he went about seeking " — not to do evil, for this 
blow from heaven had quite unfitted and embarrassed him in 
doing Satan service — but " seeking some to lead him by 



232 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

the hand ! " It is thus, sooner or later, that eternal justice 
comes up with the workers of iniquity, and unfits them 
for satanic purposes! Beware then, for God may inter- 
fere with your operations in a manner that may cause you 
sorrow ! 

If there is one declaration more than another, in the New 
Testament, which Satan wishes had never been written, it is 
that in 2 Cor. iv. 1-4. In that you find Paul's apology for 
want of success in preaching the Gospel in particular places, 
or among certain classes of hearers. Here we find a complete 
exposure of satanic policy — enough, one would think, to 
alarm those hardened sinners who sit unmoved, out of their 
hardness and unbelief, even when listening to the most pathetic 
and moving portions of the Gospel message. They are " lost " 
— in the mazes of error — lost to all feeling, being "past feel- 
ing" as the apostle marks elsewhere. Blind and lost; and 
Satan is the cause of the first ; the losing part of the business 
is the result, and of themselves. Did they but believe, the loss 
would be on Satan's side ; for God would open their eyes to 
the light, as quick as he shut the eyes of Elymas, if they did 
but believe ! But they " believe not," says Paul ; therefore 
Satan maintains his power to blind their minds, or veil the 
glory of the Gospel from their view. Thus, they neither per- 
ceive its tremendous claims, nor feel its power; and so wander- 
ing on, are " lost " in deeper and deepening darkness, and increas- 
ed and increasing hardness, till a sudden death involves them 
among the forever lost ; like that veteran among hardened hear- 
ers, who perished notoriously the other day. When the sin- 
ner is damned, Satan gives him light enough upon all subjects, 
till he believes and trembles like the rest of Hell! 



THE BIBLE DEFENDED. 233 

English families are apt to take pride in their escutcheon, 
or family shield — arms, or ensigns armorial of the family. If 
they but knew the origin of some of them, which their ances- 
tors had humility enough thus to acknowledge and perpetuate, 
they would find little cause for pride or vain-glory ! and to pay 
a government tax upon it, besides ! "Were I a painter, or an 
engraver, and called upon to draw a picture of Satan's family 
escutcheon, I would select chains as the principal figure, and 
every link black as darkness. " Chains of darkness " was St 
Peter's idea. (2 Peter ii. 4.) A volcano in the background, to 
render those chains dismally visible, might be the next figure. 
The ancients, you know, long believed the volcano to be a 
mouth of hell. 

Darkness is a word in frequent use in the Scripture, denot- 
ing Satan's power — thus we find, " his kingdom is full of dark- 
ness." " The power of darkness " was our Lord's sorrrowful 
acknowledgment in the garden of Gethsemane, the night of 
his betrayal. u Reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, 
unto the judgment of the great day," was Jude's idea. " To 
whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever" is another ex- 
pression of Peter. St. Paul speaks of deliverance from " the 
power of darkness." (Col. i. 13.) Doubtless he thought, just 
then, of the words in his own commission to preach, from the 
lips of Jesus Christ himself: "/ send thee to open their eyes, 
and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God ; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and 
inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in 
me." (Acts xxvi. 18.) The family of Satan, here in this world, 
are said to " walk in darkness;" and their works are* called 
" the works of darkness ; " and their children are " the chil- 



234 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

dren of darkness" Besides, " the rulers of the darkness of 
this world " are spoken of ; invisible and wicked spirits, sup- 
posed by some, in which may be included, perhaps, wealthy 
and powerful sinners. Such is the state of the world, on the 
side of Satan. St. John declares that the whole world lieth in 
the arms of the wicked one — the word in Greek will bear, 
lying in the jaivs of the wicked one. What a horrible position ! 
ready to be crushed to death whenever God permits, but never 
until " the sin unto death " has been committed. (1 John v. 
16.) I believe the devil kills all who die in their sins. Con- 
sult Heb. ii. 14. 

******* 
The doctrine of Satanic influence is a part and parcel of 
divine revelation. We receive that with equal faith as we do 
the rest. It is impossible to read the Scriptures attentively, 
and not perceive that such spiritual beings as angels and 
devils do exist — invisible beings, at work for good or evil in 
this lower world. Nor is it to be denied, in the face of Scrip- 
ture and experience, that " the fiery darts of the wicked one " 
fly as thick around the Christian's integrity as they do around 
and through the skeptic's infidelity. Indeed, in the former, 
those darts seem more swift, direct, and straight to the mark 
than against the latter, in whom the battle has been fought 
and won by Satan. Why cannonade a fortress that has sur- 
rendered ? The Christian is like a fortress uncaptured, though 
besieged. The gates are shut, and he w T ho commands within 
will neither surrender nor parley with the enemy without. Satan 
never tempts a hypocrite to doubt the safety of his state, nor a 
skeptic. He is too wise for that. The Spirit of God acquaints 
such with the fact. The arch-fiend attacks those who are 



THE BIBLE DEFENDED. 235 

right, to lead them wrong ; but lulls and soothes those who 
a*re wrong, to keep them in the wrong. 

In the mean time, be not high-minded, but fear. Ants 
taught wisdom in the days of Solomon. (Prov. vi. 6.) Wise 
men have learned much of "inferior animals," and so may 
you of these humble Christians. We read that birds have 
been very useful to shipwrecked sailors upon strange coasts, 
as they assured them what fruit it was that was safe to eat. 
However beautiful and tempting the fruit might appear, the 
sailors touched them not, unless the birds had first pecked 
them ; then they partook freely. A lesson for you and your 
companions here ! If persuaded they are true Christians — 
and this you may know by comparing them with the character 
of Jesus and the precepts of the apostles — then imitate them. 
It will be better for your soul and body. Much as some of 
you have affected to despise these humble ones, there is a time 
of acknowledgment coming, and not far off, that the virtues 
they practised and the vices which they rejected were marks 
of the soundest wisdom ; when you would give worlds for 
their hope and assurance, or even a crumb of their comfort — 
ay ! wish a thousand times that an hour's existence or an 
option of better things had never been vouchsafed unto you, or 
that your heart and choice had been better disposed for im- 
provement. 

I am sorry these Christians are not more lively ; but the 
burden of souls is on them, and the sight of their eyes affects 
and agonizes their hearts, and they look sorrowful — no great 
victory having yet been achieved by the Gospel among them ; 
and some of their near and dear friends being in danger of drop- 
ping into hell. Perhaps yourself may be a cause of it in some, if 



236 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

the truth were known. " A sight of you is enough to make any 
devout person melancholy," said one to one of your brethren 
in unbelief! " The ivorld Jcnowetk us not ," says John. We 
are an enigma to them ; they know not what to make of us ! 
They behold our actions, but the principles from which they 
spring are a secret to them. " The wind bloweth where it 
listeth" saith Jesus, " and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; so is every 
one that is born of the Spirit" The motions of the wind 
perplex the philosopher, and the operations of the Spirit con- 
found " the natural man" The philosopher, however, is too 
wise not to admit a cause, and too philosophic to call it 
"foolishness." (1 Cor. ii. 14.) "The spiritual man," as Luther 
observes, is a puzzle to " the natural man," who knows his 
face and manners, but is quite unable to discern from whence 
those words, not now wicked and blasphemous as before, but 
holy and godly ; or from whence those motives and actions ! 
The policy of appearing thus gloomy or sad in your •presence 
some might consider doubtful ; for my part, I respect sincerity. 
If not really joyful, it would be hypocritical to seem so. 
" There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh" says the in- 
spired writer. These serious Christians think it no time for 
laughing in the presence of a poor sinner who may be in hell in 
an hour. Tell me, do you not in reality think them worthy of 
more respect and confidence than if they yielded to levity be- 
fore you. Is not their seriousness more consistent with their 
principles ? 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

TO ANOTHER PLAIN-SPOKEN. 




»** 



Y ! They are too wise to learn of God, and fools 
5 enough to follow the seductions of Satan. 

Expert to move in paths that Newton trod, 
From Newton's universe would banish God ! " 

Too wise to learn of the Bible, and yet simple enough to 
put supreme confidence in books and periodicals of a certain 
sort, which have little else to recommend them except some 
talent displayed in finding fault with Christian belief and 
practice, without offering to the world anything better in their 
place ! They have too much reason to be guided by reason- 
able men, yet so bereft of reason as to be led away into the 
most drivelling nonsense by wicked and unreasonable men. 
St. Paul came in contact with such in his day, and considered 
a deliverance from them a matter worth praying for, as we may 
see from 2 Thess. iii. 2 : " And that we may be delivered from 
unreasonable and wicked men : for all men have not faith." 
Or, as the Greek has it, " from absurd and wicked men." It 
will bear the sense of " disorderly, unmanageable, and wicked" 
who have neither faith, fidelity, nor trustworthiness. And did 
you see the peril of trusting in such guides, with uplifted 
hands and wet cheeks you would offer a similar prayer. 



238 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

What good you can reasonably expect to accrue from such 
company it is difficult to see. Surely you see and know enough 
from week to week to awaken your suspicions. Can the stream 
rise higher than the fountain ? Can that be right which such 
men extol ? — or that wrong which such despise ? 

" But they seem as positive of being right as the most zeal- 
ous of your denomination." Of course they do ! A contrary 
manifestation would ruin their cause, and they know it ! The 
difference between them and us is this : we have the best of 
reasons for being zealous, and happy, too ! — and such argu- 
ments to support our positiveness as they never knew, never 
muster for the cause of unbelief ! 

Infidelity ! it is a pit, my friend ! — a pit ; yet, strange to 
say, it does not seem such to those who are in it ; at least one 
would think so, or they would cry unto God to be delivered 
from it. They have become used to its gloom, doubtless, and 
consider it preferable to the clearer light that shines on the 
surface of truth from the Bible. The gloom of that pit ren- 
ders a coming eternity doubtful or dubious. The light of the 
Bible renders their damnation certain. It shows also, indeed, 
a way of escape, but as that demands a renunciation of the 
works of darkness, they prefer the pit and the gloom. Many 
of its prisoners, through ignorance of the Gospel paradise, 
never awake to the peril of the place, till the light of eternity 
flashes about them — as in the case of that veteran in unbelief 
who perished yesterday. He saw, when too late, that he had 
long been living within the vortex of the pit that is bottom- 
less. (Rev. xx. 1.) Seized upon by despair, "his descent into 
the region of darkness," to use an idea of a German, "was 
palpable to the horror-stricken watchers." Or, like another, 



TO ANOTHER PLAIX-SPOKEN. 239 

who finished life with the cry, " Call time again ! Call time 
again ! " 

There will be a pretty general "jail delivery" by and by. 
The great Judge is preparing for them. It will be terrible 
when it comes. Oh ! but I hope you may not be among them ! 
Satan contemplates it. But He who is to be your judge of- 
fers to be your Saviour now — would rather your prison de- 
livery might be effected by the power of the Gospel. (Rom. i. 
16.) A number of such have already been rescued by this 
Gospel. And not a few have seen it, and feared, and turned 
to the Lord. But, alas ! many are standing in the dark pas- 
sages of your pit, ready — all made ready by Satan — to be 
driven, like the swine of old, out and down " a steep place" 
into eternity. Others, to use an idea of Summerfield, between 
whom and hell there is but a hair-breadth line, and they are 
sporting on that hair, and the angels are expecting their fall 
every moment into the burning gulf. 

Rely upon it, the crisis is nigh at hand, although the clouds 
of divine justice still keep their station, held in balance by 
the clouds of mercy. " Dost thou know the balancings of the 
clouds f " (Job xxxvii. 16.) " For the day is near, even the day 
of the Lord is near, a cloudy day ; and the sword shall come 
upon Egypt, and great pain upon Ethiopia, and when the slain 
shall fall in Egypt " — this spiritual Egypt. (Ezek. xxx. 3, 4.) 
Ay ! the day is near when some, whose "joyful laugh" rings 
nightly in your ear, shall be made to lament that they ever 
had an existence, or else that they had not a heart to use it 
for better purposes. Perhaps the memory of such neglect may 
become the fuel of their misery hereafter. Oh ! what multitudes 
are this moment weeping and wailing in hell on account of 



240 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

those very courses which you and your companions are now 
pursuing ! I mean, because they were such fools as to live just 
as you now are living. The hope of one day getting up yon- 
der in Paradise, out of sight and hearing of these things, com- 
forts one's heart ! 

Depend upon it, your present mode of "reasoning" (if 
worthy of the name) and living will mllke your burden very 
heavy when passing through the dark valley and the shadow 
of death. Why keep such company? Why countenance 
errors, to say no more, which in your judgment you cannot 
but coudemn ? Are their hopes so fascinating, and their likely 
lodgings in eternity so desirable, that you cannot abandon their 
society ? It cannot be ! Come out from among them, then. 
Why not ? What is to hinder ? Escape for your life ! They 
are poisoning your mind, and preoccupying it with thoughts 
unworthy of )»our intelligence and intellect, and which may be- 
come a source of great annoyance to you in future life, should 
you turn to God. I knew a pious and devoted minister who 
suffered much from this very cause. When happy in the love 
of God, the skeptical reasonings of the companions of early 
days had no influence ; but no sooner did he become low in 
his religious feelings, and matters not going after his liking, 
than they would recoil upon him with fearful force. Allow 
these warnings a place in your memory. 

******* 

True! Jesus Christ died for all! That I declare with 
my whole soul, you are a witness. And it is true also, that 
" whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
saved.' 1 '' But it is also written, " How shall they call on him 
in whom they have not believed ? " He died for sinners, and 



TO AXOTHER PLAJX-SPOKEX. 241 

for thee ; but, with an eminent divine, I believe — and let his 
words sink down into your heart — " He did not die for final 
infidelity as predominant in any soul." 

Let me warn you again : Skepticism is a swamp, whose 
boundary line is the pit. The farther you proceed in it, the 
more you wiD become entangled and bewildered, and the 
more unlikely your return to the tranquil gardens of revelation. 
" Reason " should tell you as much, to say nothing of conscience 
or of faith. Alas ! Reason is a proud faculty in some, and 
like Diotrephes of old, " loveth to have preeminence.'' 1 And 
as that character refused to receive St. John and the other 
apostles, disallowing them to speak to the church, it refuses 
to receive these. One called it, when out of conceit with its 
guidance, 

'•Bigoted, one-eyed, short-sighted reason!'' 

To speak the best word for its capacity, unaccompanied by the 
light of revelation, we may credit it, with Dryden, 

" Dim as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars 
To lonely, weary, wand'ring travellers, 
Is reason in the souL" 

Christianity has nothing to fear from reason, if reason only 
keep its place as the handmaid of faith — not going before 
faith, but following after. " If it go before, it diminishes and 
weakens faith," said a pious man ; " but if it follow faith, it in- 
creases and strengthens it." I have often thought of the re- 
mark, and never found it aught else but true. We claim for 
Christianity the candor and fairness which are accorded to 
the science — for it is a science. Let reason treat it as such, 

and test it thoroughly, as the other sciences are tested, accord- 

11 



■IMH 



24:2 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

ing to its principles, and we have nothing more to say. Then 
let reason speak out all she knows, and all she hopes, and all 
she fears, all her doubts, and all she believes ; with this proviso, 
that what she does not know, because the facts lie quite out of 
her province, let her learn of faith ! We give a somewhat simi- 
lar advice to reason as Paul gave to the Christian wife, that, 
instead of debating or disputing points of doctrine, etc., in the 
church, she was to inquire of " her husband at home." Let 
reason, if it will learn, ask its husband, Faith, at home ! 

For my part, I would say with the Rev. Mr. Arthur to a Lon- 
don audience, " Let every star in the heavens sing, and let 
every stone in the earth speak out all that is in it, and when 
4he voices of all the realities in the universe are heard, no one 
voice will ever drown the supreme verity, which the good 
among men know is there — ' The law of the Lord is perfect, 
converting the soul ! ' " He was speaking to timid theologians 
and politicians, who trembled for the honor of revelation in the. 
progress of this stirring and inquisitive age. Let reason speak 
out all she knows, but let her speak the truth, and, like a wise 
and prudent preacher, know how to stop when she has done ! 
But when she steps out of her province to speak of things 
which she does not know, when she flings aside her modesty 
to become a teacher without having taken out her degree 
from the Bible, and proclaims herself independent of faith, 
then does she deserve rebuke ! 

When replying to questions in the pulpit, I feel under no 
obligation to do what you suggest. Satan is ready for every 
such advantage. I have no wish to fill the minds of the people 
with the rubbish of infidel objections, which have been defeated 
a thousand times. I follow the plan of the great and good 



TO ANOTHER PLAIX-SPOKEX. 243 

John Newton, who observed, " My principal method of de- 
feating heresy is by establishing the truth. One proposes to 
fill a basket with tares ; now, if I can fill it first with wheat} 
I shall defy his attempts ! " Ay ! but if a hearer comes with 
his basket full of tares, my method is to persuade him to al- 
low me to empty his basket of tares, and fill it with wheat. In 
doing this, it is not always necessary to touch every tare ; they 
hang together so that if one gets hold of a leader among them, 
a slight jerk or so, with an unceremonious bump on the basket, 
it is emptied at once ! and if one has a plentiful supply of 
wheat, nothing can be easier than to fill the basket with wheat ! 
Do you understand me ? 

For the above reason, I can only say you have spent the day 
in reasoning from wrong premises ; how then can your conclu- 
sions be correct ? "When you start ])ropositions which are 

" As bastions set point-blank against God's will " — 
I mean, against the decisions of God's word — you are reasoning 
thus; the Scriptures of truth disclaiming you at every step, 
and you disclaiming Scripture ! Like a hound the other day 
(excuse me !), your reason spent both time and strength on a 
false scent. But unlike that fine animal, that swept gracefully 
around and retraced his steps back to the point of divergence, 
your reason proclaimed a triumphant conclusion, without find- 
ing aught but "dread nought" as if pleased with any plea to 
impose upon your own conscience. Let my hearers observe 
one thing — never expect an argument to come to a correct con- 
clusion that sets out in a fiat denial of a " Thus saith the 
Lord " — by which I mean that which God has plainly revealed 
in the Holy Scriptures. 

It is easy to raise difficulties and start objections. I be- 



244: ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

lieve with Cecil, there is light enough to guide the humble and 
teachable to heaven ; and obscurity enough to confound the un- 
believer! Behold mercy and judgment here, and goodness 
and severity. Pray for a humble and teachable spirit, my 
friend. When unbelief busies itself in seeking occasion, God 
has so ordained that it need not be long disappointed. Oh! 
beware ! No longer 

" Enlarge and fortify the dread redoubt, 
Deeply resolved to shut the Saviour out," 

lest, in your dying hour, you may be forced to exclaim with 
one, " I have denied my Lord, like Peter, but I have not re- 
pented like Peter!" Better a thousand times, my dear sir, 
that you should, like Pollok's antiquaries, 

" Be groping iu the dark unsearchable 
Of finished years," 

midst medals, faithful to the memory of temples, towers, and 
columns laid in dust, rending, if you please, " the mantling cloud 
of time, to fling new radiance on tradition's page," than thus 
to spend your precious time and talents in groping for occasions 
against the Bible and its offspring Christianity. Neither has 
anything to fear from your course, it is true ; but the injury to 
yourself may be irreparable. You may mantle your mind 
with a cloud of "doubtfulness" never to be irradiated by the 
beams of a gospel day. 

Your " facts " I cannot deny ; and if Christianity had no 
other foundations, it would indeed be an unstable system. 
That its credit has suffered by the foolish freaks of enthusiasts, 
may be admitted ; madmen — like that poor fellow who thought 
he might ascend to heaven, as well as Elijah, in a chariot of 



TO ANOTHER PLAIN-SPOKEN". 245 

fire, and so set his barn on fire, that when the flames reached 
his elevated position among the hay, the thing might be ac- 
complished. The chariot, as it approached him, looked so un- 
comfortable, that he concluded not to go up just yet, and has- 
tened out of the way ! If science had never been abused by 
its votaries, your facts might be more telling against religion. 
"Who that has ever spent a night at Florence, has not admired 
the beauty of that sky to which Galileo so often turned his 
great invention, the telescope, from the neighboring- heights ? 
and that galaxy, or milky way, overarching that fine Italian 
firmament, like a canopy of silver, fringed with deep and infin- 
ite blue ? Galileo, after all his persecutions, had taught the 
people of Florence to look up, and, by aid of his wonderful 
instruments, study the lore of those stupendous skies. But I 
was informed of a woman who was as fond of looking up there 
as any of them, especially at the milky way, which was her 
admiration. Taking advantage of the uncertainties of tele- 
scopic information, she declared it as her opinion that it was 
all done in honor of Rome — and the Pope, of course — insisting 
that in breadth and length it exactly covered the road to Rome ! 
With her arms extended, she would exclaim, "Behold! see 
the Virgin's chariot ! Regard that beautiful tracery of light, 
which extends itself even as a canopy over the holy road to 
Rome ! " And yet no one hinted that this little episode in 
science occasioned any slur against the science of astronomy, 
or doubts regarding the discoveries of Galileo. 

Nor have I learned that the notion of this enthusiast dis- 
turbed the faith of England in the principles of Sir Isaac 
Newton, or the revelations of Herschel ! No ! nor if all Italy 
had been of the woman's opinion ! Nor did I hear that Scot- 



246 ARROWS FROM MY QUIYER. 

land was at all disturbed by it ; the people still persisting rather 
in belief of the testimony of one of their own sturdy country- 
men, that the milky way is only designed to carry our vision 
through another ascending step in the scale of magnificence, 
and into another and higher planetary arrangement. And had 
both England and Scotland been carried away by the delusion, 
I doubt not that on my return to America I should have 
found the people of the United States firm in the belief of the 
great facts of astronomical science ! " Why should they not?" 
you exclaim. Stop a little ! The Scriptures of our God have 
mysterious places — altitudes " dark with excessive brightness," 
as well as profundities, beyond the ken of faith — at least, faith, 
like our telescopes, has only offered us sufficient to awaken our 
curiosity, without satisfying it. Now, if a few enthusiasts, like 
that Italian woman with her theory of the galaxy, have taken 
advautage of this, and proclaimed their disgraceful nonsense, 
why should you think that a sufficient cause to shake the faith 
of the whole world in the established facts of the Christian re- 
ligion ? 






CHAPTER XXXVI. 

TO THE SAME — PLAIN DEALING. 

^fW'fflY replies, in this way, must necessarily be short and 
^|£^f fragmentary, especially from the pulpit. Particular 



longs to the majority. A few flashes of light, according to 
my ability, is all that can be given. "When certain inquiries 
run in the direction or intended track of the sermon, remarks 
may take a wider scope. A few minutes thus spent, I have 
known to do more good than all the rest of the discourse 
beside. Hence my readiness to reply ; such occasions are ex- 
cellent auxiliaries to preaching, the object of which ought to 
be to do good, whether systematically (as some talk) or not. 
And now a few hints for " one who thinks.'''' And who does not, 
my friend, seeing that man has been, called a ruminating 
animal ? Very well, think on — think vastly, intensely, pro- 
foundly, sublimely ; " great in conjecture and brilliant in 
fancy " — what good ? " Discoveries ! " what are they, pray ? 
Any new thought never before broached ? What is it ? How 
much would it, or ages of such speculations, better the condi- 
tion of the world ? Allow me, however, to apprise you there 
are heights, stupendous heights, yet unvisited. You have but 
barely entered the field of investigation — have commenced an 



248 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

ascent, and got a little above the smoke of vulgar fires, while 
" Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps o'er Alps arise." 

It is premature, if not ridiculous, to blow your trumpet there, 
while Christianity, in her Alp-like grandeur, towers above you 
into the very heavens ! 

Ascend, sir ! Napoleon made a road over the Alps into 
Italy for his troops — a stupendous undertaking it was ! I 
crossed over by it a few months since. What tunnels and 
bridges are there ! and how it winds around the mountains 
like a ribbon, and along the cliffs and precipices ! Ascend, sir ! 
ascend the Alps of our Protestant Christianity ! It invites 
your ascent, but apprises you, by the way, that infidelity will 
fail you before you are halfway up ! You can only mount by 
the steps she has cut out for your " intellectual feet" There 
are rocks which infidelity has no tools to tunnel, chasms of pro- 
found depths which it has no means of bridging; for such 
shadows as you propose are too unsubstantial to bear the 
weight of a thought, to say nothing of the worth of your soul. 
Faith, and that only, can supply the want — can build a bridge 
across even the gulf of death, as Young remarks, and land 
thought safely on the farther shore ! But you know, sir, as 
well as I do, that your " system " is not fond of climbing such 
altitudes, its tendencies being rather in the contrary direction ! 
* ****** 

Nay, sir ! but I respect your talents. Ascend yet higher ! 
You are certainly capable of it. Do not lower or degrade 
yourself by the slang of infidelity. You are capable of greater 
things — of scaling higher summits, and of descrying yet wider 
ranges of thought. Alas for you ! but for that clog upon your 






TO THE SAME PLAES DEALING. 249 

powers — and how it mildews everything it touches ! — all that 
would otherwise give energy and freshness to thought, and 
warmth to the heart. As matters are, what avail such specu- 
lations? What happiness can they afford you? Nor do they 
fling any lasting lustre on your being, or solve in any degree 
the enigma of existence. Down there you have found no solu- 
tion, nor where you stand ; climb yet higher, and it is only to 
grasp at shadows. This is all your " philosop>hy " can do for 
you. " We plant the ladder of investigating cogitation, but 
its steps only lead us into impenetrable mists/' said one on the 
Continent. " Death has been silent from the first ; the grave 
below is silent as well as the stars above ; mysteries remain 
sealed — those of our present being and those of a future 
life ; we have no means of fetching truth up from the deep, or 
down from heaven. We are only groping in the dark and 
grasping at shadows ; and what is the fruit of all our investiga- 
tions ? " A forlorn confession, is it not ? How otherwise can it 
be, when the Bible, which contains the secrets of life, death, 
heaven, and hell, is discarded ? Can you hope to succeed in 
some likelier speculations when mightier minds have failed ? 
And to what end ? — anything more than to show that man, 
more than any other creature, is the completest failure ! 
Hearken ! we are forbidden to say in our hearts, " Who shall 
ascend into heaven (that is, to bring Christ down from above) ; 
or, who shall descend into the deep (that is, to bring up Christ 
again from the dead) ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy 
mouth and in thy heart, the word of faith which we preach." 
(Rom. x. 6, 8.) Ponder this passage ! 

******* 

Allow me also an illustration. Suppose your birth-place 
11* 



250 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

and home to be some star, which, though travelling toward 
our globe "thousands of years," is not yet visible to any of 
our telescopes. Suppose some revelation, like our Bible, 
should be pushed into circulation on your orb, with ex- 
pounders, making you acquainted with a world called Earth, 
of whose existence you had never before heard, by which you 
are made acquainted with its aspects and inhabitants, their 
virtues and their vices, and the nature of the divine govern- 
ment under which they live, its palaces and its prisons, and 
the rewards and punishments meted out to the deserving. Per- 
haps it might come to pass you would be quite as incredulous 
regarding such announcements from that book and its ex- 
pounders, as you are at present toward the Bible and its 
expositors with regard to a world to come ! — the glories of an 
eternal paradise, and the fires and horrors of an endless perdi- 
tion — with all which you are made familiar from tbe pulpit. 
What thinkest thou ? 

On that far-away orb to learn the facts in the history of 
another far-distant planet called Earth — its geography, its 
various tribes and nations and governments, the original 
fall of its progenitors from holiness and God, its arts and 
its sciences, its court - houses, jails, hospitals, and mad- 
houses, the robberies and murders and various crimes perpe- 
trated upon its surface, and the terrible punishments inflicted, 
the rejoicings of the good over repenting sinners, the horrible 
oaths and blasphemies of millions of the ungodly, the wealth 
and splendor of some, the squalid poverty and distress of 
others — in a word, all with which we, the inhabitants of earth, 
are familiar — and you should be informed, also, that at no very 
distant date you might expect to be transferred to earth, and 






TO THE SAME PLAIN" DEALING. 251 

that it depended upon your moral and spiritual character, on 
arriving there, with what class of earth's inhabitants you 
should be judged fit to be associated — what effect would all 
this have upon your mind, think you, as unbelieving as at 
present ? The application, in full, I must leave with your own 
" cogitations ; " only allow me to remind you of the revelations 
of the Bible— the two hemispheres of eternity, heaven and 
hell; in the former, called to view by faith a world of light 
and beauty, the dwelling-place and paradise of the holy and the 
good, where they fill heaven with their songs of pure delight, 
" swelled and aided by all the harps of God," for ever with 
the Lord, enjoying happiness — 

" Yast as their wishes, permanent as their being, 
The past unsighed for, and the future sure ! " 

Where they are, to use the language of Scripture, " before 
the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple : 
and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They 
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the 
sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the 
midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes." Who would not desire an eternal habitation 
in such a place ? 

" Where no care for to-day, nor thought for to-morrow, 
Can sadden the joy of those happy abodes ! " 

Alas! in the other hemisphere of eternity, we behold a 
hell, where, " prominent in characters of fire, are read " these 
words — " The fierceness and wrath of Almighty God " (Rev. xix. 
15) — illustrated by " the smoke of their torment," ascendino- 



waam 



252 ARROWS FROM MY QUIYER. 

a up for ever and ever" (Rev. xiv. 9, 11.) Of course it gives 
me no pleasure to cause such a horrible place to loom up before 
your unbelief — still thinking it better you should go down 
there for a few moments by contemplation, at least, rather 
than you should unwarned descend into eternal condemna- 
tion at last. 

******* 

The question is an important one ; but a clearer idea of 
that dreadful place, which Dives called a " place of torment" 
you can find on no page than what you may find recorded 
in such passages of Scripture as Rev. xiv. 9,11; Matt. xxi. 8, 
xxv. 41, 46 ; 2 Thess. i. 7, 10 ; Mark ix. 43, 47 ; with glimpses 
of it in Matthew, thirteenth chapter. All of which you may 
consult at your leisure, and many more which you will meet 
with in various parts of the Bible. I believe, with an ancient 
divine, that one of the most dreadful wails in hell will arise 
from a recollection of the neglect of the warning voice of con- 
science upon earth. He called conscience a salamander, which 
can live in fearful flames, and stings like a scorpion both with 
head and tail. Conscience has an instinctive apprehension of 
hell in every man. It seems to have been infused into that 
impression of accountability after, death so deeply imbedded 
in human nature. But a sense of guilt, and the voice of 
God in his word, make conscience cry out in a most awaken- 
ing manner in most sinners. It warns before sin, conscience 
does ; and it gnaws after sin. Skepticism may lull it for a 
little, but it takes very little to arouse it again. 

It was said of one that it was as if all the furies of hell 
had leaped upon his heart as on a stage ; that fear and sorrow 
met in his soul as at a feast; that fear and anguish had 






TO THE SAME PLAIN DEALING. 253 

divided his soul between them — Thought calling to Fear, and 
Fear whistling to Horror, and Horror beckoning to Despair, 
saying, Come and help us to torment this sinner ! Hell enough 
that for one man in this life ! 

"But ah! destruction stops not there, 
Sin kills beyond the tomb I " 

The man was leaving the world, but conscience united with 
these in assuring the departing spirit that the consequences of 
sin would proceed with it across the boundaries. 

Hell, in eternity, is a state of being without well-being. 
For no man in the proper command of his senses can sup- 
pose that such descriptions of the " place of torment' 1 in eter- 
nity, which we find recorded in the New Testament, can 
possibly mean anything good, or easy to be borne, or of short 
duration. And surely no wise man will parley long with a 
temptation who continually meets it with that line imputed to 
one of old, 

" If mine eternal soul must be the price." 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

BAPTISM OF FIRE! TO THE SAME. 

0, my friend ! — all that ceases when the soul finds 
V^ 5 P oace with God. Up till this hour, in the nineteenth 
F^ . \ 55 century, people are realizing in their own hearts the 

experience of those Christians of the first century, of which St. 

Paul testified: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, 

but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.'''' Have you 

never met with that pleasing stanza: 

" No doubt is in the human breast, 
When clam'rous conscience lies at rest, 

Appeased by love divine ; 
Where peace has fix'd her snow-white throne, 
And faith and holy hope are known, 

And grateful praise erects her shrine." 

Christian experience, like day, brings its own evidence. It 
is like sunshine — it brings its own witness. Who ever mis- 
took lightning for sunshine ? It is like the fire with its heat, 
or the rose with its fragrance — there is no mistaking its nature 
and reality. It is of " the workers of iniquity " the Psalmist 
speaks, where he says, " There were they in great fear," or 
as the Hebrew has it, " They feared a fear ; " but he immediately 



BAPTISM OF FIRE TO THE SAME. 255 

adds, " God is in the generation of the righteous ; " and what 
have they to fear, seeing all that is within them, and all that is 
without, testify that God is their friend ? " Bless the Lord, 
my soul ; and all that is within me bless his holy name" says 
one in the Bible ; and he immediately assigns the best of rea- 
sons why his soul should be thus employed : all his iniqui- 
ties were forgiven, and all his spiritual diseases were healed — 
all sense of peril gone — all cause of sorrow removed : " Who 
redeemeth thy life from destruction ; who crowneth thee with 
loving-kindness and tender mercies." Besides, his soul had 
renewed her youth " like the eagle's" and, instead of grovelling 
in the dust, could soar, as on eagle wings, away toward hea- 
ven. (Ps. ciii. 1, 5.) Good old Thomas Adams used to say, 
faith is the Christian's logic, and hope his rhetoric. Faith 
perceives what is to be done ; hope gives alacrity to the doing 
of it. Faith guides, advises, rectifies ; hope courageously en- 
counters all adversaries. He compared faith to a doctor in 
the schools, and hope to a captain in the wars. Faith discerns 
the truth ; hope fights against impatience, heaviness of spirit, 
infirmity, dejectedness, and despair! What has a creature thus 
furnished to fear ? I forget much of what he said of love, only 
that its latitude is greater — faith and hope had some restraints 
and limitations, of course : " The just shall live by faith " — 
an increase of it from day to day is his life. Love he com- 
pared to the vine which God brought out of Egypt, and cast 
out the heathen to plant it, which covereth the mountains with 
the shadow of the boughs, while the branches thereof spread 
unto the seas and the rivers. He compared Christian love also 
to the sun in the sky, that throws its comfortable beams upon 
all, and forbears not to warm the earth that only bears weeds ; 



256 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

and that love extends to God and angels, and down to man, 
over God's universal earth ! 

" Happy the heart where graces reign, 
Where love inspires the breast ; 
Love, the divinest of the train, 
The sovereign of the rest ! " 

Augustine's spiritual temple pleased me. God builds such a 
temple on the believer's heart, he said, Faith its Foundation, 
its walls Hope, and the perfection of. its roof Charity! A 
man, he thought, might go to prayer when he pleases, who 
carries his chapel in his heart! That religion has its mys- 
teries is not to be denied. I would doubt its divine origin if 
it had not, coming, as it professes, from the mind of an in- 
visible, self-existent, and eternal Being. We find it easy to 
believe everything revealed in the Scriptures, so long as our 
faith that it is " the word of God " knows no abatement. I 
believe, with Rupertus of old, that " the mysteries of religion 
are better understood by believing, than believed by the under- 
standing ! " We believe many things which we can by no 
means comprehend. You know too much about the mys- 
teries of creation and science to require argument upon this 
subject. 

It is pleasant to know there are some things reserved for 
an explanation in an eternal state. This renders the thoughts 
of heaven so desirable and so cheering to real Christians. In 
the mean time we know enough to enable us to shape our 
course over the sea of life, and gain the heavenly port. 

When I was in the city of Hudson on the North River, 
during a revival of religion, a skeptic freely stated his objec- 



BAPTISM OF FIRE TO THE SAME. 257 

tions against Christianity, chiefly because lie found things in 
the system which he could by no means comprehend ; therefore 
he could never bring his reason to embark upon an ocean of 
mysteries, without knowing the why and the wherefore of 
everything ; he must be able, he said, to comprehend and ex- 
plain everything, which he could not in the Christian system. 
A plain man told him that the why and the wherefore of 
serving God, and securing eternal life, were made plain 
enough, he considered ; that whatever in the Bible seemed 
incomprehensible to reason, that was no reason why the skep- 
tic should neglect to secure eternal life. " Suppose you were 
far out upon the ocean/' continued the good brother, " and 
you had command of the ship, being, of course, properly 
educated to navigate that sea. Suppose that, after trying day 
after day to take soundings, and you still found the vast ex- 
panse unfathomable, you should then and there declare your 
purpose to proceed no farther on your voyage, stating to all 
on board that yon never could be ' fool enough ' to sail over a 
sea you could not fathom, and concerning the mysteries of 
whose bottom you had no information. What would they 
think of you? Why, that you had already made a fool 
of yourself! " " Oh ! but such a determination I could never 
come to, so long as my instruments of calculation, and sea- 
room, and other things assured me of safety." " Very true ! 
depth enough for ten thousand keels, an assurance from the 
sun overhead as to your position, sound planks beneath your 
feet, and all health and peace on board, why should you 
trouble yourself about the mysterious abyss over wmich you 
are sailing ! But how is it that you cannot allow yourself the 
same latitude in passing over the mysteries of Christianity, 



258 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

seeing that faith in the doctrines of religion and in the Bible 

is as necessary as faith in your navigating instruments, and in 

the sun, when navigating the ocean ? Besides, no mariner 

has ever better assurance of a staunch vessel beneath his feet, 

and of peace on board, than the Christian who has thus 

embarked his all on board the old ship Zion ! " The iufidel 

disappeared, and I saw him no more. 

* * * * * * * 

Well, if you can trust the voice of science, we can also 
trust the voice of divine revelation. If the promises in the 
book of nature, read and understood by philosophers, are 
reliable, how much more the promises of our God, as recorded 
in the Bible ? Were it not so the scientific lecturer would have 
the advantage of us, I confess. " The book of nature is fnll 
of promises," says the philosopher. " And I can prove that 
nature keeps all her promises," says the lecturer. He then 
begins to interrogate nature, and receives distinct and unvary- 
ing replies. "By a spark, an explosion, an effervescence, or 
an evolving substance," he proves the certainties of science to 
be unfailing, and that nature never falters in the fulfilment of 
her promises ! 

The more he tests nature by such interrogations, the 
clearer he demonstrates her reliableness. And thus he proves, 
to boiTOw a few ideas from Dr. Chalmers, that nature walks by 
rule; that she keeps her promises; that her footsteps are 
steady and reliable ; that her motions are persevering and with- 
out abatement ; that the strictest scrutiny never detects an 
hair's-breadth deviation. Nor is all this confined to the mere 
abstract tests of philosophy upon the more solid parts of 
materialism. The lecturer proves that those elements which 



BAPTISM OF FIRE TO THE SAME. 259 

seem to indicate most fickleness are but the evolutions of a 
mechanism that never changes ; that even the fitful agitations of 
the weather have their law and their principle ; that the intensity 
of every breeze, the number of drops which compose every 
shower, the formation of every cloud, and all the occurring 
alternation of storms and sunshine, and all the endless sh if tings 
of temperature, and those tremulous vibrations in the air 
which philosophical instruments discover but cannot explain — 
that all those follow each other by a method of succession 
which, though more intricate, is yet absolute as the mathe- 
matical courses of astronomy — showing that the most hidden 
movements of nature are conducted with a uniformity as 
rigorous as fate — proving, whether the lecturer confesses it or 
not, that the God of nature is reliable ; and if in the laws im- 
printed upon the natural world, how much more in those of 
his revealed word ? 

And now it occurs to me that some such ideas as these 
rushed to my assistance last Friday night, when preaching from 
Matt. xxi. 22 : " And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in 
prayer believing, ye shall receive" A frequent occurrence 
with me, although my habit is to give credit where credit is 
due, and when I can quote correctly, which I cannot always 
do, when borne onward upon a hurricane of divine power ! But 
you may remember I added, if the promises in the Scrip- 
tures were not as reliable as those which philosophers claim 
for those on the page of nature, the scientific lecturer would 
have all the advantage of us ; and Christianity, when com- 
pared to experimental science, would be, to use a figure of Solo- 
mon, as a dead lion beside a living dog ! which God enabled 
me to prove before I left the pulpit was not the case ! For 



260 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

sure as the fire from heaven came down upon the altar on 
Carmel midst the thousands of Israel, a baptism of fire and of 
the Holy Ghost did descend from God through that promise ; 
and if you did not take to your heels like some, you beheld 
the amazing results ! 

That I used strong terms on that occasion I admit, and it 
was on that very account that I resorted to strong measures, 
and decisive. I felt warranted in doing so ; for in addition to 
bold language, I had this to strengthen my faith and confidence, 
that I had tested the promise alone with God, and found it 
might be relied upon — I did ! And therefore said, " He that 
hath an ear to hear, let him hear. We have here a plain 
promise of Jesus Christ, and it may be tested here and now, 
and in a few moments we may, if we will, prove whether his 
veracity and power are lodged in it, and by a manifestation as 
real and convincing as out-bursting fire from the bosom of a thun- 
dercloud ! I call for the askings of faith. I plead, I claim that 
the promise shall be tested here and now." The people knelt, 
as if one soul actuated the mass. There was a solemn pause, 
a deep silence, broken here and there by a sob. In the course 
of a few minutes what a change ! what scenes ! what manifes- 
tations ! " unaccounted for" indeed, by your principles, but 
predicted beforehand, and easily accounted for on Christian 
principles. Could you wonder that one of us exclaimed, in the 
language of Petrarch : 

" Victorious faith, to tliee belongs the prize ! 
On earth thy power is felt, and in the circling skies ! " 

A German made this remark, that he could very well 
account for the boldness of the prophet Elijah on mount Car- 



BAPTISM OF FIKE — TO THE SAME. 261 

mel, when lie said : " The God that answereth by fire, let him be 
God'''' — when he called upon God in the hearing and in 
sight of thousands — called for the fire to descend on the 
sacrifice upon that altar, and consume it, after twelve "barrels of 
water filled the trench and saturated the wood and the stones ; 
hut the fire came down and consumed the sacrifice and the wood 
and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was 
in the trench — the people falling on their faces, and crying out, 
u The Lord, he is the God ! the Lord, he is the God ! " The 
German said he accounted for this boldness of Elijah on this 
principle, that the prophet had tested the veracity of his God 
in secret, and therefore doubted not the power of faith and 
prayer in public. You may apply this, if you please, to the 
scenes of last Friday night ; in the mean time, let faith blow 
her trumpet. 

" Where reason halts and genius sinks in death, 
Faith ventures with the Bible in her hand! " 

And now hearken to my texts, for we are about to test 
most reverently, and in faith, the veracity of our God in his 
promises. And if fire should come down from heaven, it is 
not to consume any of you in your sins, but as rotten wood 
your sins. These he will consume, and all your unbelief and 
hardness, though your heart be as hard as the stones of the 
altar on Carmel ; and to consume also the dust of vanity and 
pride, the serpen? s food — ay ! and to lick up the waters of sor- 
row around the trench of the altar of every heart from which 
the prayer of faith may ascend. 

" And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on 
the name of the Lord ; and the God that answereth by fire, let 



262 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well 
spoken." (1 Kings xviii. 24.) " There/ore I say unto you, what 
things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive 
them, and ye shall have them.'''' (Mark xi. 24.)* 

* What an amazing manifestation of God's power did we witness a 
few weeks ago, in the old St. George Methodist Episcopal Church, Phila- 
delphia, in the use of the above texts combined ! J. C. 

Wilmington, Del., June 5, 1S60. 




CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

TO THE SAME THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 

UT have you never read that just remark of a dis- 
tinguished writer, that all arts and sciences abound 
with difficulties, and that a perfect knowledge of them 
is not to be attained without considerable labor and applica- 
tion. Theology, sir, is the first of sciences, for all others are, 
or ought to be subservient to it ; why then should it be an ex- 
ception? If science has its "abstrusities ," demanding patience 
and perseverance to overcome, why should it appear to you 
" an insuperable objection "" (did you not mean obstacle ?) that 
you find it so in the science of Christian theology ? With 
faith for your assistant, you may overcome. But as it is the 
triumph of Christianity to regenerate the heart, and make you 
a new creature in Christ Jesus, you had better take this into 
the account. Jesus tells you that you must " agonize to enter 
in at the strait gate." Your carnal heart is likely to set itself 
against such repentance — faith — agony ; but without it, remem- 
ber, with all your knowledge of Christianity, you may, in the 
long run, be nothing more than a wise devil through all eter- 
nity. 

2. Those two or three passages have perplexed wiser heads 
than thine or mine ! and there are yet others more difficult 



264 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

still ! Why should you marvel, seeing the book lays claim to be 
a revelation from God himself? And what are we but crea- 
tures of a day ! But a little while since, and we thought as 
much of our little windmills, and water-wheels, and bows and 
arrows, and other toys, as the monarch does of his crown and 
sceptre and munitions of war ! If we have outgrown our toys 
as we have our clothes, it is no reason why we should not be 
humble. We have not far to look back, when we were learn- 
ing our A, B, C ! If the truth were known to others, as it is 
to each of ourselves, we have erred in judgment sufficiently 
often since boyhood, to lead us to think and speak modestly — 
especially upon a subject like this. I would say, sir, with the 
immortal Cbillingworth, propose to me anything out of the 
Bible, and require whether I believe it or no ; and, seem it 
never so incomprehensible to human reason, I will subscribe it 
with hand and heart ; as knowing no demonstration can be 
stronger than this — " God hath said so, therefore it is true.' 1 '' 
I have long since learned to say of. the Bible, with Milman, 

" Be thou ray star in reason's night, 
Be thou my rock in danger's fright, 
Be thou my guide, 'mid passion's way, 
My moon by night — my sun by day ! " 

3. Intelligent Christians draw no such conclusions from the 
foreknowledge of God. They admit it, 6f course, nor for a 
moment deny that, although enthroned in heaven's eternal 
light and glory, yet earth, air, and sky, and hell's deep gloom — 
the past, the present, and the future, too — are all laid open to 

"His eye, whose instant glance pervades 
Heaven's heights, earth's circle, hell's profoundest shades." 



THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 265 

But they see no reason for imputing the cause of an evil to 
the fact of God having foreseen it. An astronomer's fore- 
knowledge of an eclipse did not cause it. " But if God fore- 
knows it, then it cannot but happen." But does that prove 
that his foreseeing it was the cause of its happening? As well 
lay the blame of the late catastrophe to the foresight of that 
architect who predicted the fall of the edifice. I have not 
learned that any one has imputed blame to him. 

4. It is difficult, I Ihink, to avoid Dr. Adam Clarke's con- 
clusions, drawn from 1 Sam. xxiii. 11, 12, that there is such a 
thing as contingency in human affairs ; that is, God has poised 
many things between a possibility of being and not being, 
leaving it to the will of the creature to turn the scale. Read 
the passage at } r our leisure. David made two inquiries of the 
Lord : " Will Saul come down to Heilah ? " And the Lord 
said, "He will come down." " Will the men of Heilah de- 
liver me and my men into the hand of Saul? " And the Lord 
said, " They will deliver thee up." But Saul came not down 
to Heilah; nor did the men of Heilah deliver David into the 
hand of Saul. And why ? Because David escaped from Hei- 
lah. Therefore this twofold prediction implied an if — that is, 
a contingency : if David will not escape from Heilah, Saul will 
come down to Heilah, and the men of Heilah will deliver him 
into the hand of Saul ! This principle of interpretation has 
a wide application, but I never care to pursue it very far. God 
foresees, if you continue in unbelief, Satan will come down 
upon you there, and that your sins will deliver you into his 
hand, and that he will deliver you to the tormentors. Never- 
theless, there is a way of escape. And God asks, " How shall 

we escape if we neglect so great salvation f " Is not this 

12 



266 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

enough ? There is a way of escape — a possibility of escaping ; 
therefore, if you are finally destroyed, your destruction shall 
be of yourself. All the commands, all the promises, and all 
the threatenings of God cluster around this centre. 

5. It blasphemes both the wisdom and goodness and om- 
niscience of God, to impute our sufferings for a sinful course 
to his " necessitating will " — that we must both sin and suffer 
because he has foreseen both. If his foreknowledge in any 
way affected our free agency, the matter would be different. 
Our damnation would not then be of ourselves ; nor would it 
require much argument to show that such a state of things 
would entirely destroy the basis upon which the rewards and 
punishments of time and eternity arc founded. 

6. The Arabs take strong views upon this subject. " The 
bounty of God " is a favorite theme with them, and " God has 
willed it." Their resignation to his will, as to a fate, seems 
remarkable ; and yet it is said never to paralyze the exertion 
of an Arab, as it does that of the Turk ; hence the reproaches 
cast by the former against the latter for his apathy and stu- 
pidity in ascribing to the will of God that which was merely 
the result of his own fault or folly are notorious. The Arab 
sometimes teases the Turk with the story of one who bared his 
back to the stings of mosquitoes, and then exclaimed, " God 
has decreed that I should be stung ! " Can you not apply the 
principle to somebody else besides the poor Turk ? 

7. A plain man, the other day, quite perplexed one of your 
"wise sinners" — a great fore-knowing stickler! — who, when 
beaten out of other strongholds, took refuge in this — the fore- 
knowledge of God — that should he foresee his damnation, it 
could not be prevented. How ingenious some men are to find 






THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 267 

excuses for their impertinence, and apologies for their spiritual 
sloth ! The sad state of a disabled ship, far out upon the sea, 
was described— dismasted, leaking badly, water gaining four to 
six inches an hour — pumps going, water increasing in the hold ; 
a consultation of officers — result, that by the most desperate 
efforts the ship might be kept afloat a few hours, by which 
time relief might possibly come. But one of the officers ob- 
jects: "If God foresees that we shall all go to the bottom, 
why, to the bottom we must go ; if, by his foreknowledge, he 
perceives we shall be lost, then to be lost is our unavoidable 
doom; therefore, there is no use whatever of struggling 
against God's foreknowledge ; besides, if he foresees we shall 
be saved, then saved we must be, whether we contribute any- 
thing to it or not." Another replies : " We have nothing to 
do with God's foreknowledge, because we know nothing about 
it. Our business is, and our duty, to keep the vessel afloat 
as long as we can. How can we answer to that same God 
for the loss of our lives, if we sit down supinely, and let our 
ship go down under our feet ? Let us fly to the pumps ! " Be- 
hold them toiling hour after hour, while the " foreknowledge 
man " is lounging below, pronouncing them a parcel of fools 
in trying to change God's foreknowledge. When, lo ! in the 
hour of extremity, a vessel appears on the horizon ! On the 
wings of the winds she is carried to their relief, and they are 
all saved from a watery grave. Had all been of the mind of 
the second officer, they would have undoubtedly gone to the 
bottom ! 

The skeptic was considerably perplexed, but made out to 
say something about moral action as differing from the mere 
management of a ship at sea. " Make out as many nice dis- 



268 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

tinctions as you like," rejoined the plain brother, "I consider 
that it would have been morally wrong for those sailors to 
have neglected the means of self-preservation which God had 
placed within their reach." The skeptic had no more to say, 
and moved on, but had some better material for thought, than 
he had been accustomed to, I fancy. 

8. By the way, sir, have you not read of that terrible storm 
that overtook a vessel on the Adriatic, and which beat upon 
her during fourteen days and nights, under a sunless, moonless, 
and starless sky, till all hope that they should be saved was 
taken away both from passengers and crew ? — and how that 
an angel from heaven in the night, during the full sweep of 
the tempest, alighted on that wave-washed deck, and said to one 
of the passengers, " Fear not, Paul, for thou must be brought 
before Ccesar : and to, God hath given thee all them that sail 
with thee " — some two hundred and threescore and sixteen peo- 
ple all told. But did that lead Paul to protest against their 
taking soundings, letting go four anchors out of the stern, 
lightening the ship by casting the wheat into the sea? But 
there was the angel's promise, and they toiled on in the height 
of the storm as if no such promise existed — Paul helping, and 
venturing, though a prisoner, to put in a word of direction. 
The angel came down from God out of heaven, who saw 
" the end from the beginning" that they should all be saved 
— pledged the veracity of an angel, and the credit of Paul's ve- 
racity to the prediction. All prudential measures were encour- 
aged, while he declared, " There shall not an hair fall from the 
head of any you ; " nor did he say how useless all this bustle, 
in taking up the anchors, and loosing the rudder-bands, and 
spreading the mainsail to the wind, seeing the foreseeing 



THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 269 

promise of God stands good ! Nay, but when the sailors at- 
tempted to take the small boat and flee from the ship, leaving 
the passengers to perish, Paul protested to the centurion and 
soldiers, saying, " Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be 
saved. 11 What ! and the promise of a foreseeing God to the 
contrary ? Read the result in Acts xxvii. 

******* 

" Infidel works." I thought as much ! I would advise you 
to neither course — neither sell nor give them away. Do with 
them as those at Ephesus did with their wicked books — burn 
them, " before all men " if you please, but burn or destroy 
them, that they may do no more injury. (Acts xix. 19.) Make 
no such compromise with Satan. Now that they can do you no 
more harm, he wants to get them into hands where injury may 
be perpetuated ; and offers to put money into your pocket if 
you will but let the books go. No such compromise, my friend ! 
Burn them ! Have you not read that when the French Revo- 
lution had brought to light the fatal consequences of Voltaire's 
writings, some halt-scrupulous persons, no longer willing to 
allow bis fourscore volumes a place in their library, resolved to 
get rid of them, and sold them at a low price. Thus, as one 
remarked, " this measure, though it ' stayed the plague ' in their 
own houses, caused the infection to spread wider." Burn 
them, sir ! burn them ! 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



HINTS FOR CERTAIN HEARERS. 




gO " one of them." — " Woe to the land shadowing with 
wings," exclaimed one of the prophets. Opinions are 
^of ten but Satan's shadows ! He is the spirit that 
worketh in the "children of disobedience." His shadow on the 
intellect leaves an impression, which resolves itself into an 
opinion. When Satan wishes to transfer an heretical opinion, 
he knows well how to do it. Adopting his opinions, you 
make them your own ; once yours, they will attend you as the 
shadow of your person ; when you go, the shadow goes ; when 
you stand or sit, or how or limp, advance, recede, or stop, so 
will your shadow. 

2. Beware ! of making a bridge of your own shadow ! 
Have you never read the fate of him who was drowned by a 
similar mistake ? or of those thoughtless fellows who mistook 
their united shadows for a bridge, and fell into the river? 
They were only akin to those who tried to span the gulf of 
death by infidel opinions, which were but shadows, without any 
substance of truth, of whom it was said, " They perished catch- 
ing at their own shadows, and hanging on their own fancy!" 
which they falsely called faith ; faith in all unbelief, it was. 
The race of such men has not become extinct. Oh ! sir, cease 



HINTS FOE CERTAIN HEAEEES. 271 

entirely to be one of them ! In their consciences, if they have 
any, they will approve your course. " Believe as Christians 
do," said three or four professed infidels to a dying companion. 
" Believe as Christians do ; because, if it be false, it can do you 
no harm ; but if it should prove true, you will be a great 
gainer." The man replied, "I have already taken your 
advice." He had taken the alarm during his illness, feeling 
that his sickness was unto death ; sought mercy through faith 
in Christ, and had found it, and was now enjoying that divine 
peace of mind which true religion can inspire. He was truly 
happy. These members of the old club, hearing of his 
dangerous illness, concluded to visit him, and volunteer the 
advice already noted. The man died well. 

3. Far otherwise it was with poor . The irresistible 

hand of God was upon him, and there was no escaping. In- 
fidelity had made him daring in sin, and his conscience, now 
under the command of Heaven, seemed as if laying then all 
open before him. Recollections came crowding upon his soul, 
which were poor' helps in his last grapple with the king of 
terrors. If he did drop into the fiery lake, it was not with a 
hard heart or a seared conscience ; that is, if one might draw 
inferences from appearances. But God is judge. The day 
will declare it. We may find some in paradise we did not 
expect to meet there ; and miss others we had no doubt of 

hailing there. We cannot say as much of Mr. . " To 

justify myself is impossible ; to make supplication is unavail- 
able," afford but a slender hope, surely ; eyes now rolling in 
horror or agony, and again, as it were, swimming ia death ; as 
if unable to sustain his affliction, as to repair his loss. He 
must either go into the eternal world unprepared, or reconsider 



272 ARROWS FROM STY QUIVER. 

his avowed principles, and along with it a review of past life. 
" The cup of trembling " was in his hand ; but, alas ! with the 
words of Lucifer in Festus, we may drop the curtain : 

11 And giving bills which no man may decline ; 
Drafts upon hell one moment after date, 
Terrors shall be about ye like a wind ; 
And fears come down upon ye like a house." 

4. The serious remark of one is worthy of record ; it was to 
this effect : that deatli is only a small drop from " the cup of 
trembling" mingled for the future portion of the soul, reluctant 
to leave the body. I love to think that God is merciful ; but 
in view of the Scriptures, which Jesus declares " cannot be 
broken" one trembles for the fate of a soul departing from the 
body thus. Ah ! sir, infidelity is a poor support in such an 
hour as this ! Allow me to commend for your adoption the 
prayer of Austin of old, " O Lord, let thy holy scriptures be 
my pure delights, in which I can neither deceive nor be 
deceived." If so, their " delights" shall not be wanting in 
that honest and trying hour, which may come at any time, 
and must come at one time or other. 

5. Ponder Ps. cxix. 11, " Thy word have I hid in mine heart 
that I might not sin against thee." And again, 161st verse, 
" But my heart standeth in awe of thy word." He who thus 
gives " the word of God " a place in his heart will never be 
awed by death, nor find death armed with a sting, as did the 
poor skeptics alluded to. Isaiah xxx. 21 is worthy your at- 
tention, " And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee., saying, 
This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand 
and when ye turn to the left." That " word " is the voice, of 
God sounding out from the Bible. He designs his word to 



HINTS FOE CERTAIN HEAREKS. 273 

be a "a lamp unto thy feet, a light unto thy path.'''' (Ps. cxix. 
105.) Mark those two pronouns " thy," for they are significant, 
showing the individuality of the Scriptures — " thy feet ," not 
anybody's feet or everybody's feet, but " a lamp unto thy feet" 
as if you were the only person remaining upon earth to be 
guided into heaven ! 

6. The Bible is a teacher as well as a preacher. It is God's 
voice we hear there ; and sometimes it is as if God were 
speaking directly to one from the sacred page. The word 
comes then with a force singularly striking and convincing. 
It is thus to me, at least. And now, a parting word for your 
ear alone ; it is this : never expect to hear the voice of God to 
your comfort from the Bible, unless your believing eye is fixed 
reverently on the Bible, or to the idea of that book in your 
memory you offer the homage of your heart and the allegiance 
of your conscience. 

******* 

To " A Friend." — 1 . So your " friend A. was disappointed ; " 
no uncommon event among my over-curious hearers. When 
a boy I was never fond of throwing feathers I they strained the 
arm more than a substance a thousand times their weight. I 

o 

confess to the same prejudice in preaching. My Master has 

not sent me into the fields, ripe already unto harvest, for the 

purpose of picking up a feather here and there, dropped from 

a wild or tame bird's wing. 2s"o, nor to gather sticks or 

straws, " hay, wood, and stubble ; " but the wheat for the garner 

of the Lord. (Matt. xiii. 30, or Matt. hi. 12.) 

2. Perhaps he has never read the story of Myconius, the 

friend of Luther, how that after his call to the ministry he had 

a remarkable dream ; that he entered a field of grain, and was 

12* 



274 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

ordered by the proprietor to commence reaping. He did so, 
but found himself greatly attracted by the straw of the wheat, 
and wasted much of his time and strength in levelling his 
sickle close to the ground, so as, if possible, to leave little or no 
straw behind. He was ambitious to gather the straw as well 
as the ears. While thus engaged a voice spoke to him in the 
Latin tongue : Domino meo non opus est stramine modo arisice 
in horrea colligantur — " My Master needeth not straw ; gather 
but the ears, and it shall suffice." Myconius understood the 
design of the vision, and, I trust, profited by it during all the 
years of his ministry. 

3. Theorizing is not my forte. It is well ; otherwise, to 
please a few I might become but a profitless preacher to the 
many. Those remarks of the excellent Mr. Jay have been 
cheering to me, and in connection with my own experience 
and observation have strengthened me in my purpose — to be 
spiritual and practical in my style. His remarks were, that 
there seems to be in the public mind an intuitive perception 
that religion is not mere science or theory, but that it contains 
much that has to do with men's business and bosoms. There 
is, continued he, an innate conviction that it is not* only some- 
thing to know, but something to do. They may not be always 
willing to do, but still they expect to hear of it, and are dis- 
satisfied if they do not. They are aware that it is a matter 
which has to do with all persons, states, and circumstances. 
Hence they feel something of surprise, even disgust, with the 
preacher who deals much in abstractions which lie remote 
from human nature and life. They expect to be told, not only 
how they should think, but how they should act. A good 
maxim is more appreciated than any speculation. 



HINTS FOR CERTAIN HEARERS. 275 

4. To return to yourself, it would give me pleasure to 
assist you out of that snare ; but you have had some oppor- 
tunity of knowing how intensely I am engaged, day and night, 
except the few hours I snatch for sleep. But, blessed be God, 
that oblivion is complete ! This is a great work of God, and a 
great tax upon mind and body — compelled frequently to range 
over wide fields for information and for illustration, whereby 
to present truth more vividly to the minds of my hearers. 
Every night presents new phases in the work ; characters of 
all sorts crowd the sanctuary. In various ways, I become ac- 
quainted with them, and suit my preaching to their inquiries 
or circumstances. I am quite a cosmopolite, flying to and 
fro, and can carry but few books with me ; so I have to rely 
upon the memory of what I have read, when I had a library of 
my own, and time at my command. My note-books help me. 
This is all I can say at present. Write me all your heart ; 
and, I dare say, if you will pay particular attention, that in 
some part of the discourses from night to night you will find 
fragments that will refer to yourself, though others may con- 
sider them intended for many more besides. 




CHAPTER XL. 

TO ANOTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT BOOKS. 

OOKS ! I love their society — boots that are books ! 
that reward one well for time and attention. When 
a pastor, how I revelled in their delightful interchange 
of thought ! How often in their midst have I realized that 
sentiment of Landor, that, when we sit down among our books, 
we enjoy a society and privilege we might travel far among 
living men without finding their equal ! In conversing with 
them, we raise no jealousy when we converse with one in pre- 
ference to another ; we give no offence to the most illustrious 
by questioning him as long as w r e will, and leaving him as 
abruptly ! Diversity of opinion raises no tumult in our 
presence ; each interlocutor stands before us, speaks, or is 
silent, and we adjourn or decide the business at our leisure. 
Nothing is past which we desire to be present ; and we enjoy 
by anticipation, somewhat like the power which, I imagine, we 
shall possess hereafter, of sailing on a wish from world to 
world 1 

" The winter's night and summer's day 
Pass imperceptibly away " 

in such society. Blessed be God for the society of books. 
2, How necessary, though, they should be pood books. I 



THOUGHTS ABOUT BOOKS. 277 

should like to see your library. The character of a man may 
be known by the company he keeps, is an old maxim ; and the 
same may be said of the books he reads! "Evil communica- 
tions corrupt good manners " is as true of books as of men ! 
Instead of assisting us to anticipate the period when we shall 
float as on a wish from world to world, bad boohs may predis- 
pose the mind to a very different antepast! Of all books, 
the Bible is the safest ; and it is so portable that one can carry 
it everywhere. My Bible was seized at the port of Rome by 
an officer of the Pope, but he handed it back to me again ; 
whereas, had there been a box of books, they would have been 
detained. I smiled when I got my Bible back, knowing that 
it contained whole libraries within itself, and the elements, 
besides, that would most assuredly one day either purge 
Popery of its pernicious and destructive errors, or smite it and 
break it in pieces, and disperse it like the chaff of the summer 
thrashing-floors which the wind carries away — like what befell 
the great image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream ! And 
what companionship we find in that Book of books ! — the best 
and most illustrious persons that ever walked the earth ! 

3. And your authors "have assisted you on difficult 
points ; " very well, if in doing so, they did not weaken your 
respect for the Bible ! * If the blind lead the blind, both 
shall fall into the ditch" may be said of all false teachers — 
books as well as men ! Were they guided by the decisions of 
God's word, think you, or by some other light? It used to 
be an old maxim among mariners, before the compass was 
known, " If a pilot cannot see the pole-star, it can be no fault 
in him to steer his course by such stars as do best appear." 
Ay ! but he was to assure himself whether the star was not 



278 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

some transitory meteor, or some false light or other ! Care- 
lessness in that respect rendered him culpable and amenable 
to law. The application is plain ; see ye to it ! 

4. In ancient times mariners had no compass, therefore 
attention to the polar star was often of vast importance to the 
navigator, as Dry den somewhere remarks : 

■ "Rude as their ships was navigation then, 
No useful compass or meridian known ; 
Coasting they kept the land within their ken, 

And knew no north but when the pole-star shone." 

So it was with the world, once, till God gave it the Bible. 
But we have, that book now, and faith, like the mariner with 
his compass, ventures out on the sea of life, fearing no danger, 
with the Bible in her hand. As the sailor trusts his compass, 
and steers by it, blow high or blow low, by night and by day, 
thus must every saint, ay, and every repenting sinner, steer 
by the holy book, if they would ever arrive at the port of 
eternal peace. 

5. When in the city of Limerick, south of Ireland, a while 
since, in conversation with a sea-captain, an excellent man, 
and a member of the Weslyan Church in that city, and still 
in command of a ship in the American trade : he told me that 
about twelve years ago he found himself, when nearing the 
Irish coast, involved in a terrific storm. Neither sun nor 
moon nor star had been descried from his ship's deck during 
four days and nights. One night during the gale he went be- 
low, the vessel " hanging on the teeth of the gale," under close- 
reefed main-top-sail. Having left the ship in charge of a care- 
ful officer he felt easy in mind, lay down on the cabin floor, 



THOUGHTS ABOUT BOOKS. 279 

imagining land about forty miles distant, according to his reck- 
oning, A thought struck him to open the Bible before he 
dropped asleep. It lay within reach of his hand, and he 
opened upon these words: "And the angel of the Lord spake 
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south" (Acts 
viii. 26.) A sense of immediate danger took possession of his 
mind, and exclaiming involuntarily, " Truth, Lord!" he sprang 
on deck. It was then about four o'clock of a winter's morning, 
and looking up, a star or two was twinkling here and there 
through the gloomy vault, bat the tempest was tremendous. 
He ordered a man aloft to look out — the waves ran so high 
and furious there was little chance to see anything from deck. 
" Look right to leeward," said the captain, apprehending dan- 
ger from that quarter. In a few moments there was a cry from 
the rigging, "Breakers ahead, sir I" "Where away?" The 
answer confirmed his singular impression, and he instantly or- 
dered the helmsman to keep her away south ; the ship obeyed, 
and barely escaped destruction; and that night they entered 
the Shannon all well. Thus the Bible, that had been the means 
of saving his soul from sin and hell, seems to have been the 
means also of saving him and his crew from a watery grave ! 

6. It is thus in matters of doctrine : when a man is perplexed 
by temptation and darkness and skepticism, he may find the 
true point of his spiritual course, as well as his peril, by con- 
sulting the Bible ! Let him, in doing so, pay attention to the 
impression it may make upon his mind, and govern himself 
accordingly. This little anecdote may be of some use to you. 
Ponder it. Watch and pray, and steer as the Xew Testament 
may direct. From this hour may you never look upon the 
Bible without those lines occurring to vour mind: 



280 ARROWS FROM MY QCIYER. 

" May this blest volume ever lie 
Close to my heart, and near my eye ; 
Till life's last hour ray soul engage, 
Be this my chosen heritage 1 " 

7. Whether he was a friend or foe to your faith, who per- 
plexed you so on Gen. ii. 17, judge for yourself after ponder- 
ing the following hints : " For on the day thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt surely die "'■ — or as the Hebrew has it, " dying thou 
shalt die " — the same as if God had said, " Thy body shall cease 
to be immortal, and shall gradually tend toward death. Thy 
soul shall instantly lose its spiritual life, which consists of 
union and fellowship with me, its Author; — thy soul shall be- 
come dead to the life of communion with me, as thy body shall 
be dead when thy soul has been separated from it. Continu- 
ing thus, thy separation from life and peace must be eternal, 
which is the second death." Disobedience followed. Now, had 
the fruit of that forbidden tree remained untasted, man had 
never died ; and, most likely, neither spiritual, temporal, nor 
eternal death had ever befallen the family of man. Yet, from 
all this, the doctrine of annihilation can no more be extracted 
than oil out of flint ; no, not by the most forced or strained 
method of interpretation. 

8. " Earnest objections" I admit, have been made by infi- 
dels in every age against that plain account of the fall of man 
in the Book of Genesis ; yet I have never met one that was 
able to propose anything better. "Alphonso the Wise" as he 
was called, but one called him il Alphonso the Fool, rather" 
was impious enough to declare that had the Maker of the uni- 
verse consulted him at the creation, he could have given him 
hints for the improvement of his plan ; thus boasting that had 



THOUGHTS ABOUT BOOKS. 281 

he been of God's council, many things had been advised and 
ordered better than they now are. Alas for the royal brains 
of Alphonso ! His own plans needed mending in the govern- 
ment of his country. And what answer could he give his God 
when standing before his tribunal ? " God is not mocked " with 
impunity. 

9. The expulsion from the garden, and the sword of flame 
at the gate through which the guilty pair passed, and, indeed, 
the entire destruction of the garden, were all necessary acts of 
mercy : " lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree 
of life, and eat and live for every A terrible calamity would 
that have been ! A deathless union between soul and body: — an 
eternal old age, with all the attendant evils now known in the 
lot of man, afflictions, temptations, sins, sorrows, and suffer- 
ings, yet incapable of death ! What a horrible state of things ! 
There are five prophetical months indicated in Rev. ix. 6, when 
men shall endure such torments that death in any form would 
be a boon. " And in those days shall men seek death, and shall 
not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from 
them." Imagine the frenzy during such a state of things ! 
Picture to yourself the state of our world thus circumstanced 
if but for a thousand years only ! — that plaintive cry of Job 
saluting us in every direction : " Wherefore is light given to 
him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul ; which 
long for death, but it cometh not ; and dig for it more than 
for hid treasures?" — unwilling to end life with their own 
hands, but rushing into scenes where death is most likely to 
meet them — as some who have been known to rush into the 
battle-field, hoping that a ball from an enemy's gun might do 
that for them which they had not courage to do for them- 



282 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

selves ! Such " heroes " have performed wonderful exploits on 
the field of blood and desperation. 

Perhaps you have not met with those lines by one of the 
Latin poets : 

" Seeing that long life is both useless and burdensome, 
When we can no longer live comfortably, shall we be permitted to die ? 
Oh ! how hard is the condition on which we hold life I 
For death is not subjected to the will of man. 
To die is sweet to the wretched; but wished-for death flees away. 
Yet when it is not desired, it comes with the hastiest strides." 



CHAPTER XLI. 

THE TRUTH OF GOD DEFENDED. 

5 JT is a long time ago since it was said of Truth, that 
she seldom appears in public without a scratched face ! 
"^£ffl Men hate her so ! Sometimes, indeed, she comes too 
near the heel of Error, and gets knocked down for her pains. 
But her wounds, thank God, are never mortal, nor incurable. 
Her Lord, who healed the ear of Malchus, is never less kind to 
Truth, his own representative upon earth. As some poet says, 
though crushed to earth, she is sure to rise again, for the eter- 
nal years of God are hers ! Error, like the vicious horse, that 
wounded himself in hitting against a spike, writhes and dies in 
the midst of its admirers. 

2. There is a difference between yonder old oak on the 
heights, and that willoio on the verge of the swamp. The 
oak contends with the furious blast, and roots itself deeper by 
the fray. It is its nature to do so ; and the soil on which it 
grows, and where it has been so long nourished, supports it in 
the conflict. But the willow — it is its nature to yield — a 
good illustration of the presence or absence of principle. 
I remember reading of a celebrated English statesman, who 
contrived to hold office both under the government of Queen 
Mary the Papist, and Queen Elizabeth the Protestant. One 



284 ARROWS FEOM MY QUIVER. 

ventured to ask him how he was able to keep place under the 
reigns of two such opposite sovereigns. " By always imitating 
the willow instead of the oak," was the reply — no very difficult 
matter to a man who had no conscience ! 

3. One encounter prepares one hi my position for another ; 
as the brindled lion prepared David to encounter the bear, 
which came on a similar errand against his affrighted flock. 
Successfully encountering these, and recognizing the hand of 
God in the victory and deliverance, he was prepared, when the 
occasion served, to measure strength with Goliath of the Phi- 
listines, in the valley of Elah ! A conqueror there, gave as- 
surance of victory at the head of an army — till, in after-life, 
we hear him exclaim, " Blessed be the Lord my strength, 
which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight! — my 
goodness, and my fortress ; my high tower, and my deliverer ; 
my shield, and he in whom I trust ; who subdueth my people 
under me / For by thee I have run through a troop ; and by 
my God have I leaped over a wall ; a bow of steel is broken by 
mine arms." One encounter prepared him for another. Sam- 
son's conflict with the young lion of the thicket nerved him to 
assail a forest of Philistines. 'There is much of this discipline 
in the history of every successful minister of Jesus Christ ! 

4. But I would not be misunderstood. There is but little 
use to behave like the oak, when the conduct of the yielding 
willow will serve as good a purpose. Such ludicrousness I 
have seen in my time. It never struck me as a mark of a well- 
balanced mind, much less of true greatness of character; 
although piety might be associated with it. In matters per- 
taining to conscience, and the high authority of God — when 
the mind grasps a " Thus saith the Lord," as the roots of a 



THE TRUTH OF GOD DEFENDED. 285 

great tree, some vast stone or rock beneath the surface — then, 
let the character concerned resemble the oak on the hills ; 
but in things non-essential, where the will and authority of God 
receive no dishonor, it is well to resemble the yieldingness and 
gentleness of the willow ! This is all I have to say upon this 
subject; only this let me say of the cannonading in question, I 
am used to it ! it was called u paper shot " by one of the old 
writers, with a startling array of the pikes of evil tongues. 
" God and my rights ! " And " the word of the Lord endureth 
for ever" whatever may become of me ! Christ reigns ! 
Hallelujah! 

5. And now for another point : hearken ! The Jews had 
their traditions, so have the Roman Catholics; each would 
have us believe them to be "unwritten verities." Skeptics, of 
a moderate caste, are much inclined to make similar claims ; 
but they find intelligent and conscientious Protestants tough 
subjects to grapple with. Our verities are found in the written 
word of God. AVe are very stubborn upon this point, we as- 
sure you, sir! Every creature after its own nature. What 
the Bible is to you and your fellows, is not so to myself and 
companions. TVe never expect to see a fly suck honey out of 
a flower like the bee ! Nevertheless, the fly may be quite as 
active as the bee, in its way ! Skeptical natures arc quite active 
just now. The warm atmosphere of a genuine revival stirs 
them into activity. Flies and bees do not stir round much in 
cold weather ! 

6. For medical men and their students I have a high re- 
spect, of course ; but a word for the ear of one : Persons in 
your profession are at liberty to make improvement in the 
materia medica. They may discard old systems of practice, 



286 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

and adopt and invent new ones, with more or less advantage — 
risk, perhaps, to poor humanity. They may take liberties with 
prescriptions, altogether at variance with standard authorities. 
Not so in theology; our most learned doctors of divinity 
must receive it and teach it as it is revealed in the New Testa- 
ment. Physicians may add fresh discoveries to the science of 
their art, gems to the diadem of medicine, but the divine Au 
thor of Christianity has left no vacancies in the diadem of re- 
ligion, to be supplied by some yet undiscovered doctrines. The 
truths of Christianity are as permanent as the globes of the 
firmament. Those that were known and believed in the first 
century, are precisely the same as those taught and received in 
the nineteenth. As well attempt the creation of a new star in 
the vortex of space as to espy some new essential doctrine in 
the Holy Scriptures ! 

7. Another point I approach with delicacy and tenderness. 
Has one present never read in the Book of Psalms, "Great 
peace have they which love thy law : and nothing shall offend 
them ; " that is, be a stumbling-block to them, to cause them 
to fall, or to stumble them out of the way. He that would 
promote a revival must learn to step over such things, and not 
trip upon them ; nor should he be thin-skinned either, nor 
over-nice about circumstances, if so be the work of God ad- 
vances in power. A bird sang sweetly the other morning in 
the midst of thorns ; and so did a nightingale with a thorn at 
its breast. 

8. After one has been looking at the sun for a while, if the 
eyes are strong enough to bear it, things below are greatly be- 
dimmed. It is so especially when the eyes of the soul have 
been looking steadily at " the Sun of Righteousness" or at the 



THE TRUTH OF GOD DEFENDED. 287 

Bible, which one called " the sun of revelation" The thought 
might be applied to certain positions in life ; wealth and sta- 
tion are too dazzliug, unless the eye has been long directed to 
heavenward. There are certain doctrines and points of Chris- 
tian experience which are quite beyond the ken of some minds, 
whatever be their positions in life ; like the stars, they are 
much above them every way. When an individual talks so 
confusedly regarding his own soul, of which he ought to have 
some experience or acquaintance from day to day, it is not to 
be expected he can reason clearly regarding " Christ in you 
the hope of glory" or of the human soul being " an habita- 
tion of God through the Spirit" of which he has no experi- 
ence. To reason correctly about anything, a man should know 
something of that about which he would reason. "I know 
what I would not have, but I do not know what I would have," 
said Oliver Cromwell, when finding fault w r ith the government 
of England under Charles I. He won something; more than 
a smile, or a titter, after his views had become defined and en- 
larged ! Credit for wisdom has often been betrayed by words. 
Some hold respect for wisdom no longer than they hold their 
peace. Even children are quick to detect, although in other 
things much imposed upon by appearances. Circumstances 
lately have reminded me of a certain courtier in the retinue 
of Alexander the Great, who paid a visit to the studio of 
Apelles, the celebrated painter, and was received with the con- 
sideration due to his rank. This, it appears, excited his vanity 
and talkativeness, which unhappily sallied forth upon the fine 
art in question, exposing his ignorance in a variety of ques- 
tions and criticisms. Apelles interrupted him at length, in an 
undertone : " Do you see those boys that are grinding my col- 



288 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

ors ? While you were silent they admired you, dazzled with 
the splendor of the purple and gold with which your habit 
glitters. But ever since you began to talk about what you do 
not understand, they have done nothing but laugh at you ! " 
The courtier made his exit. Having said thus much, perhaps 
it would be as well to dismiss the subject. I have known per- 
sons who in other matters seemed to possess much intelligence 
and sagacity, but who appeared to great disadvantage when 
invading the territories of religion ; or in dictating in matters 
of doctrine and experience, which they had not thoroughly 
investigated. I would by no means discourage religious in- 
quiry, when conducted as an inquiry ; but when dogmatical 
decisions precede investigation, I deplore it — sometimes re- 
sist it with more energy and plainness than is agreeable to the 
parties. A man quite forgets himself when he says of a plain 
declaration of Scripture, " How can this be ? I cannot be- 
lieve it, because it is incomprehensible." Were he present on 
any Sabbath afternoon, in any one of the Bible^ classes of the 
school belonging to this church, during the discussion of some 
Scripture topic, he would be surprised how well such mysteries 
are understood — I mean by very young persons ; how much 
light they are capable of throwing upon the declarations of 
God's word ; persons of whom he would expect but little informa- 
tion in passing them on the street, or meeting them in company. 
What reply would he venture, after hearing a mere youth, 
in a voice and manner of convincing sincerity, discuss the pos- 
sibility of the Holy Spirit of God occupying the heart of 
every believer as his habitation, thus : " Our superintendent is 
one, and his voice is one ; yet that one voice enters the ear of 
every one of the hundreds present, and occupies every attentive 



THE TRUTH OF GOD DEFENDED. ' 289 

mind ; by which each at the same moment is made acquainted 
with his mind, and partakes, may be, of his emotions. This is a 
great mystery to us ; and yet we know it to be a fact. Why, 
then, may not believers have a similar verification of the Holy 
Spirit in the habitations of their hearts ? Again : the natural 
sun is one, but his beams are many ; yet if we place a mirror 
before him, his one distinct warm image is made to appear in- 
stantly therein. Let there be a million of mirrors, or ten hun- 
dred millions of mirrors, one for every person now upon the 
earth, and it would be just the same — a warm, well-defined 
image of the sun would appear in every one of these mirrors. 
But why may not the Spirit of God, though one, be able also 
to appear in the heart of one, or a million, or ten hundred 
millions of believers, at the same moment ? Or can the sun, 
which is but a creature, or creation of God, do more than his 
Creator ? even that Divine Spirit, which we learn in the begin- 
ning of the creation * moved upon the face of the waters? God 
is one, and his voice is one, yet when that voice from Sinai entered 
the ears of Moses, it entered at the same moment the ears of 
two millions of people who surrounded him." Would my friend 
venture a reply before that school next Lord's day ? Let him 
recall the story of Alexander's courtier and the painter's boys ! 

9. One remark more ; and let those whom it may concern 
listen. When absurdities run into heaven-insulting blasphemies, 
equal to that chain-shot which it was said one hurled upward, as 
if he thought to make the windows of heaven shake ; why, 
then, like Hezekiah of old, whom Rabshakeh sent to blaspheme 
God, we may fall to our prayers, and humble ourselves before 
insulted majesty. 

10. But in parting, let me drop this word in your ear : it 

13 



290 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

was said of the Sodomites their eyes were full of uncleanness, 
and they were smitten with blindness ; they burned with lust, 
and God burned them with fire ; they sinned against nature, and, 
against the course of nature, God rained on them, but it was a rain 
of fire and brimstone from heaven. A strange punishment, sirs, 
is decreed for those who strangely sin, and " who turn the grace of 
God into lasciviousness." We read in Revelation how that the 
men who blasphemed God, afterward " gnawed their tongues for 
pain." (Rev. xvi. 9, 10.) The member that sinned, suffered. 
Those two questions of Job are still receiving their respective an- 
swers : " Is not destruction to the wicked f and a strange punish- 
ment to the workers of iniquity ? " So it has been, is, and ever 
shall be, till all finally impenitent sinners become as chaff, stubble, 
and tares, and the sentence goes forth, " Gather, bind, and burn. 11 
May God prepare us all for that day, and not Satan ! Amen ! 
11. Dives complains bitterly in hell about his torment; 
but the member for which he craved alleviation most was his 
tongue. " Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Laza- 
rus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my 
tongue, for I am tormented in this flame 11 The member that 
sinned most, perhaps, suffered the keenest anguish. Not the 
tongue of his body of course, that had received a decent 
burial, but its counterpart, the tongue of the soul, that which 
speaks within, before the tongue of the body stirs. Man 
is a compound being of body and soul, a duplicate in more 
senses than one. In hell he had eyes by which he could look 
up, and tongue to speak. A terrible hour it will be to Dives 
and to all the wicked when both the tongues of body and soul 
begin to suffer the pains of hell-fire together. Ah ! sirs, men 
little know what they eay, when they proudly boast, " With 



THE TRUTH OF GOD DEFENDED. 291 

our tongue will we prevail ; our lips are our own : who is Lord 
over us f " (Ps. xii. 4.) Xo sentiments more prevalent in our 
day ! The Psalmist had a deep meaning couched in those in- 
quiries : " What shall be given unto thee, or what shall be done 
unto thee, thou false tongue f Sharp arrows of the might]/, 
with coals of juniper" And a deeper meaning yet did Jesus 
Christ couch in that awful declaration : " But I say unto you. 
That every idle word that man shall speak, they shall give ac- 
count thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou 
shalt be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned." 
Hear that, all ye who count words for nothing ! Let me re- 
peat the declaration again, "But I say unto you, That," etc. 
See how your eternal justification, or condemnation — your eter- 
nity depends on them ! Will you not after this have some 
care upon your words, and a bridle on your tongues ? 

12. The prophet Xahum tells us that sinners are but stub- 
ble laid out in the sun to dry, that they may burn the readier. 
(Nahum i. 10.) In Rev. xiv. 18, we hear an angel uttering the 
vintage cry against the vine of wickedness : " Thrust in thy 
sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, 
for her grapes are fully ripe." And it was done, and they 
were cast into " the great wine-press of the wrath of God." 
Mark this — the same sun that dries the stubble for the fire, 
ripens the grapes for the wine-press. Sinners who sit under 
truth, if not saved by the Gospel, dry or ripen fast for hell. 
No stubble dries so fast as that which grows in Gospel fields, 
which Satan has either beheaded of all belief, or so rubbed that 
the place of ears is grainless ; and no branch of the vine of 
wickedness or skepticism ripens faster in its fruit than that 
which shoots over the walls of Christiau congregations. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

TO '. IMPATIENCE. 

) ,XT depends unto whom the Spirit of God may send the 
^VgsL message or the warning. We must distinguish char - 
jJJ acter. " Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be 
wise in his own conceit" is an injunction of Scripture. But a 
caution is previously given, as if the Spirit desired us to mark 
the priority of its importance : " Answer not a fool according 
to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him " (Prov. xxvi. 4, 
5) — like unto him in spirit and temper, allowing your zeal for 
the right to degenerate into anger or impatience or vulgarity. 
There is a hidden meaning, I have thought, couched in that 
hint of the apostle in Ephes. vi. 12 : " For we wrestle not 
against flesh and blood'''' — as we may think we do when con- 
tending with sinners — that they are but men, when they are 
more, the devil being in them to help them to wrestle with us ; 
so that " we wrestle not with flesh and blood " alone, but with 
the devil therein. A mighty argument with me to have " on 
the whole armor of God " — for " the wiles of the devil" in flesh 
and blood, are beyond all that wrestlers ever experienced in the 
Grecian arena. 

2. Impatience is a bad companion in the pulpit, and should 
never appear there. So far as I know my own heart, I felt 
none of it on that occasion ; but strong and burning words of 



TO : IMPATIENCE. 293 

truth were given me ! It is not unusual that such are consid- 
ered, by some, as marks of impatience. In the days of Baxter 
it was even so, as now. That holy man complained : " If a 
minister deal plainly with you, you say he rails ; and if he 
speak gently or coldly, you either go asleep under what he says, 
or are little more affected than the seats you sit upon." And 
thus it is to the present day. 

3. When one is " grieved in spirit " by the hardness and 
unbelief of some, to say nothing of their impertinence, there is a 
liability of saying too much, or too strongly, and with more 
emotion than some phlegmatic temperaments would consider 
becoming. Paul exclaimed, " Who is sufficient for these 
things f " when he found that the word preached had become 
a savor of death unto death to some, though a savor of life 
unto life to others. That I have detected something like im- 
patience in my own spirit, under sore trial, I will not deny, and 
have had to mourn over it, and humble myself before God — 
although it is hard sometimes to distinguish between a tempta- 
tion to impatience, and impatience itself. In either case it is a 
matter of feeling, and so also is the state of being " grieved in 
spirit " — yet that may exist without any impatience of spirit. 
(Mark iii. 5.) However, at such times, to be on the safe side, 
judgment has gone against myself. 

Whether mistaken or not, I have found it good to imitate 
God's people, of whom it was said in ancient times that, when 
nature rose against the hard usage received from their persecu- 
tors, they soon clubbed it down, and reasoned themselves pa- 
tient, like David, and prayed down their distempers like Paul ! 
With the spirit and actions of some leading men in Conference* 
* The British Wesleyan Conference. 



294: ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

on one hand, and the temper of awakened sinners on the other, 
no small degree of patient grace and faith are needed. 

4. Aristotle, though a pagan, yields the point, that of the 
twain, it is better to suffer the greatest wrong than to do the 
least. That advice of one is good indeed for the present times 
— I receive it as such: "You need patience now at every 
turn ; it is like bread and salt, which, most likely, you cannot 
make a good meal without. Patience ! put it on as your cloak, 
to keep off all storms ; as a helmet, to bear off all blows ; carry 
it as a paring-knife, to cut the cross less and less till it come to 
nothing. (Luke xxi. 19.) Resemble the ancient Christians, 
who, when asked by their persecutors what great miracle Jesus 
Christ had done for them, replied this : ' That we are not 
moved by the scorn and cruelties you cast upon us.' Singular 
things are expected of those who have received singular grace 
and mercy — they must go above others, and have their feet 
where other men's heads are ! " What think you of this ad- 
vice, my friend ? With every sinner saved by grace, I can say, 
God, even my own God, and thine, has shown me, even me, 
all long-suffering and mercy, and he expects me to show the 
same to others ; and if in these respects he has • shown singu- 
lar grace toward me, should I not, in forbearance at least, and 
patience, be head and shoulders above many others. 

5. In scenes like these we study men and devils too. The 
same blow from truth that wounds the sinner does not leave 
the tempter unscathed. When Satan receives a stab he be- 
comes mad and roars. He laughs in sinners when he is 
tickled by pulpit wit and drollery, and the preacher would 

" Court a grin when lie should win a soul." 
If " the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience " was 



TO : IMPATIENCE. 295 

ever tickled from this pulpitj lie acts as if in despair of ever 
enjoying that luxury again ! A thief does not like to be 
deprived of his booty, but he likes it worse if he has received 
a wound in trying to conceal it. 

******* 

But have you never seen the ancient emblem which repre- 
sents u a thoughtful thoughtless man " offering straw to a dog 
and a bone to the ass ! There is much thought wasted in the 
pulpit by its inappropriateness to the character of the congrega- 
tion — a cause of much unfruit fulness. The opposite course 
requires courage. It is a terrible disaster, in the estimation of 
some divines, when they learn that the plain-dealing of some 
conscientious preacher has caused some rich man and his 
family to vacate their pew, or when his congregation has be- 
come thin from the same cause. They would not risk it for 
a good deal. Yet such a preacher may be dearer than ever to 
Heaven ; and if he have but courage to persevere, in the long 
run he will be no loser. God will see to that. 

The old maxim, " Fair and softly goes far," prevails widely 
in this age ; and the old politician's motto also, " The warm 
side of the hedge is the better part of prudence." If warmth in 
religion be the preacher's application of it, it is well enough ; 
but if worldly advantage or spiritual sloth, and an avoidance 
of the storm that is sure to beat against the aggressive side of 
the hedge be the end, then the warm side of the hedge is 
treasonous ground ; bad, as a good man once observed, as to 
break a hedge of God's commandment, so he may shun a 
piece of troublesome way. This is one reason why Providence 
often commissions some personal or family trouble to invade 
that snug and warm side of the hedge. 



296 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Solomon says, " The way of life is above to the wise, that he 
may depart from hell beneath" But that looks to some, when 
God shows it them, to be the way of starvation and death ! 
" God or your fears," says the Spirit. " God ! " says the faith- 
ful soul. " The way of life is above to the wise," says God. 
" I will walk in it," says the consecrated soul. " What ! though 
you meet a lion in the way ? " " Yes ! though I meet a lion in 
the way, or a dozen of them, Lord ! " Thus, sir, such an one 
goes a higher way to work, not only to reach the summit of 
true godliness, but usefulness. Aware that more than a com- 
mon stint is required of him, he will not stick at doing what 
others will not or cannot — by way of preaching the whole 
truth of God, and in such a manner as to come in actual col- 
lision with the sins that may be eating the heart out of the 
church and blighting the heritage of God. 

No pique whatever against " rich men and wealthy families," 
nor should they suspect, without cause, anything of the sort. 
The Psalmist speaks of mercy and truth meeting together, and 
righteousness and peace kissing each other. But, sir, when 
prosperity and pride meet together, and wealth and wickedness 
have kissed each other — when souls redeemed by the blood 
of Christ are carried up by Satan and these, as he once did 
our Lord, to the pinnacle, from thence to cast them down 
headlong upon the burning pavements of hell — silence on the 
preacher's part would be sufficient to awake the abhorrence and 
exclamations of heaven ! What thinkest thou ? " But pru- 
dence — prudence in dealing with them." I know it ; and yet 
there lies the peril of touching them so tenderly and softly 
that the preacher might as well not touch them at all ! He 
must preach so as to make them both see and feel their danger. 



TO : IMPATIENCE. 297 

There was something abrupt and terrifying in the peroration, 
or application, may be, to some — yet, when rightly under- 
stood, what was there so very objectionable in it ? What had 
sincere Christians to fear ? Let us see how it looks ! Was it 
not after this manner ? Oh ! that, as God once allowed Satan 
the use of a whirlwind to blow down the house where Job's 
children were feasting, that he would lend me a whirlwind — 
that he would make my voice a whirlwind to smite the four 
corners of the houses of sinful amusements and vanities — to 
break down and uproot all evil examples and hindrances to the 
Gospel of Christ. Such a whirlwind, my God ! as not a soul 
of them may escape to Satan ; such a whirlwind, ay, equal to 
that which swept away and carried off Elijah to the skies- — to 
sweep every soul out of satanic influence, clear into the ex- 
tended arms of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ! Amen ! 
And my heart still says Amen, as earnestly as ever ! 

We live in a world of peril. And when one preaches once, 
it is not certain we may ever preach again. To close one's 
ministry and life with such sincere utterances, is not to be dep- 
recated ; the occasion would be worthy of them, and they 
worthy of the occasion. When one addresses an audience, 
there is no certainty we shall ever address them all again. Ah ! 
sir, how many, during the last quarter of a century, have heard 
this voice of mine for the last time, and retired to die ! 
****** * 

But have you never read that couplet which describes 

" Impassioned logic which outran 
The hearer in its fiery course ! " 

Nothing against your critique, only that the subject thereof 

13* 



298 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

feels himself very unworthy. It reminded me of the reply of 
Charles V:, after hearing a speech from one of his councillors 
that tended to his commendation : " The orator has only taught 
me what I ought to be, and not what I have been? There was 
much to humble the spirit in retrospection, after the effort to 
which you refer. This cup is preferred to my lips oftener than 
many suppose ; — some medicines are curative and others pre- 
ventive in their operation ! There is more distinction between 
talent and genius, in their operations, than you seem to sup- 
pose. Poets, I allow, are not at all times reliable authorities, 
but one of them, I remember, ascribes to talent the power of 
convincing but to genius that of exciting ! Talent he consid- 
ered the offspring of the judgment, and the taskmaster of 
reason, which reconciles its pinion to the earth. He compared its 
operations to sunshine on a cultured soil, ripening the fruit by 
slow degrees. But genius, as the unsettler of the mind's desires, 
and discontented till earth be left behind, he compares to " an 
iris of the skies " — 

" Genius, the sudden iris of the skies, 
On cloud itself reflects its wondrous dyes ; 
And to the earth, in tears and glory given, 
Clasps in its airy arch the pomp of heaven I 
Talent gives all that vulgar critics need — 
From its plain hornbook learn the dull to read ; 
Genius, the Pythian of the beautiful, 
Leaves its large truths a riddle to the dull — 
From eyes profane a veil the Isis sereens, 
And fools on fools still ask ' what Hamlet means ? ' " 

Both are the gift of God, and should be used for his glory 
and the good of man. " Lord, thy pound hath gained ten 



TO 1 IMPATIENCE. 299 

pounds," saith he in the parable. (Luke xix 16.) " Thy 
pound," not my pound ! As such he traded with it, and as 
such returned it with increase, and received his great reward. 
A grand idea here ! A noble preservative against the prostitu- 
tion of talents ! The results would have been more glorious 
on the occasion in question, had not some professors got fright- 
ened and ceased to pray, and to stay up my hands, wishing 
it were over ! Aaron and Hur stayed up the hands of Moses, 
one on the one side, and the other on the other side, until the 
going down of the sun, during the great battle in the desert 
of Rephidim. However, God made us victorious ; and this 
first great victory, like that to Israel, inspired our spiritual 
troops with great confidence. That victory of Rephidim was 
the forerunner of a succession of victories to Israel ; and so 
may this, of which we speak, here in this desert of formality 
and sin. Amen ! 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

TO I A STIR IN THE CAMP OF UNBELIEF. 

FfijSERE is no cause of fear. We can lose nothing by all 
^43^1 ^ a * s ' ^^^ means it ? Have they been asleep hitherto 
W$>" p under our batteries ? Have the proper cannon been 
wrongly directed, or dismounted, or what ? Depend upon it they 
are thoroughly aroused. If Satan has been stirred, we may infer 
it is to defend that which is endangered. Who can doubt it ? 
Look around at the trophies of the onset. And some of these 
have themselves mounted no mean ordnance against the very 
ramparts behind which they were so lately intrenched ! It is 
clear any softer method of address could have effected but little. 
I believe with him who says, " If there is one doctrine of the 
Holy Scriptures which finds in the present day its tangible 
confirmation, it is that of the existence of a ruler of darkness, 
and of a kingdom of infernal powers. A shower of fire has 
swept over us, and the shield-bearers and apostles of unbelief 
shoot up from the earth, like the fungus, in a night. An infer- 
nal spark now burns in skepticism. Unbelief 'is now no longer 
the blind bantling of a heart insnared and deluded by the 
spirit of this world ; but the light-shunning offspring of a 
wicked and rebellious will. Phenomena, such as those which 
meet us in the present day, were never before seen in the world 
in such an ti- Christian atrocity and massiveness. There is peril 



A STIR IN THE CAMP OF UNBELIEF. 301 

to the unsettled everywhere. He who is but halfway in this 
mystery of iniquity, may finish his course ere the month is out 
in total apostasy from Christian truth. I only echo the senti- 
ments of him who said, he who reaches the spirit of the 
times only the tip of his finger, may rest assured that soon his 
whole hand will be taken." Jesus reigns. That is our com- 
fort. I like to repeat these lines : 

" Hell weaving snares a thousand ways, 
Finds mercy central in the maze." 

It would require more time than I have at command to ex- 
plain circumstances. The onset was severe, and the material 
of thought and language not altogether in good taste, perhaps ; 
a fault to which extemporaneous speaking is more or less 
liable, especially in the ardor and excitement of some occa- 
sions — and when the soul is fully up to the mark of fearless 
truth — when one is apt to rely more on that than upon wis- 
dom or good taste in the selection of words and figures. The 
sting of the remarks lay in their truthfulness. Let us review 
a little. The comparison of infidels to spiders eviscerating 
themselves in weaving sophistical webs to catch unwary souls ; 
and others trying all conclusions — beating their own brains, and 
the drivellings of dead men's brains — searching Satan's skull, 
were it possible, and listening at the very gates of hell for 
new designs and forms of blasphemous opposition of the 
religion of Jesus — drinking deep, besides, of " the cup of 
devils," for strength to carry the ball at their foot to greater 
lengths-:— till God has jerked them back to their shame, and 
made greater fools of some, of them than they thought to 
have made of his servants ; — these figures were strong, but 



302 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

how far did they overreach the facts of the case? Also, 
that it was said of one under the power of deep melancholy, 
that he could not tell whether he was a beast or a man. 
But these infidel natures around us have ascertained that they 
are nothing more than beasts, but, unlike other animals, make 
merry over the discovery — merry over that which is a melan- 
choly idea to every sensible intellect. And if the truth were 
kn.own, these renegadoes from truth and righteousness have 
little else to make merry over than their own melancholy, 
and the annoyance they give Christians. 

"But was there not something- more?" Why, yes ! that 
the old satirists called melancholy " the deviVs bath" but 
some people grow quite merry in the bath ! I heard an ass 
bray a few days since, and he really seemed inclined to be 
merry, perhaps because one of his little ones had kicked up 
his heels and whisked his tail, as if pleased with the braying ! 
Nor shall I readily forget the saying of one, that a melancholy 
person tires the physician, grieves the minister, wounds rela- 
tions, makes sport for devils, and converts the soul into an ass 
for Satan to ride upon ! All infidels are melancholy asses I It 
cannot be otherwise. What is there in infidelity to make 
any man merry ? For ever nothing, or for ever miserable / it 
would require the power of " the laughing gas " every 
moment, to maintain constant merriment with two such ideas 
knocking at the door of the heart for admittance. That was a 
great famine in Samaria, when an ass's head was sold for 
fourscore pieces of silver. It would require a greater famine 
of the word of God, before the heads of such asses, or the 
product thereof, would fetch as much ! In the present state 
of the spiritual mart there is no demand for them, except 



A STIR EST THE CAMP OF UNBELIEF. 303 

by such as have no taste for better things ; and who, poor 
creatures, continuing as they are, have little prospect of any 
more honor at their burial, from angels in heaven, and good 
men in this neighborhood, than what was accorded to Jehoi- 
akim of old (Jeremiah xxii. 19): "He shall be buried with 
the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of 
Jerusalem" My task is a thankless one, I admit ; but then, 
is it not written in our Bible, " If thou meet thine enemy's ass 
going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back again.'''' (Exodus 
xxiii. 4.) There ! my friend, have I made the matter better or 
worse ? Or, are you disposed to compare me to him who, at- 
tempting an apology for his profanity, swore again while doing it. 
• It may not be amiss to remind you that the patriarch Jacob 
did not scruple to compare Issachar to a strong ass couching 
down between two burdens ! If time did but permit, I could 
draw a very strong comparison between Issachar and some of 
your neighbors. But I forbear. This is enough for this time. 
If they fancy anything more of the same style, perhaps it may 
be forthcoming ! A pious man justly observed — and the re- 
mark maybe of some use to such — that those who have jested 
most at orthodox sentiments, have by a just series of conse- 
quences been given up to believe the most unaccountable 
things that were ever circulated among mankind ; and I have 
observed, he added, that those who affect to sneer at creeds, 
have always one of their own : every man believes something ; 
and he who deviates most from the testimony which is the stand- 
ard of religious truth, lives in the belief of those sentiments 
which believers have a right to despise. The application is so 
plain, I need add nothing further. 

* * ****** 



304: ARROWS FROM MY QUIYER. 

It is the joy of my heart to assist sincere inquirers after 
truth, although sympathy for those who are wilfully in error 
runs rather low with me at present. That was a wise saying 
of one a long while ago, that when men once step over the 
pale of truth, they know not when or where they shall stop, 
but run on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 
I have seen the truth of this exemplified in the history of 
more than one professor of religion. The "sentiment" of 

Mr. has " a basis," may be, equal to what a wit assigned 

it, " The cobweb surface of a walking dream ! " A perilous 
basis for that immortal spirit of his. It was said of one that 
he wrote out wild schemes with the mad finger of his imagina- 
tion, and wiped them out hastily with the hand of a yet blush- 
ing conscience ; but his peace of mind was gone, nor did he cease 
to wander on into deeper darkness. Gospel peace your neighbor 
professes not. How could he ? And how can conscience blush 
when " reason " has become the high-priest of imagination ! 

So long as it is written, " To you therefore which believe, 
he is precious ; " the friends of Jesus need never fail to have 
the witness in themselves. Calvary and Tabor have both their 
peculiar attractions for me. In the transfiguration, I find curi- 
osity and adoration struggling for the mastery. But in the scene 
of the crucifixion, adoration and sympathy, like John and the 
mother of Jesus, on Calvary, are in unity. Olivet, and its 
ascending Lord ! — in that scene my faith receives a glorious 
confirmation, as regards immortality. There was a voice from 
the cloud over Tabor, " This is my beloved son, in whom I am 
well pleased ; " and there were voices upon Olivet after Jesus 
had passed from human sight among the clouds, from the 
pure lips of angels in white apparel, announcing the certainty 



A STIR EST THE CAMP OF UNBELIEF. 305 

of Lis return to earth again. These affect me ; but not as the 
voice that sounds through darkness on the mount of suffering, 
" My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" It melts 
my heart, it overpowers my soul. It matters not whether he 
meant forsaken me, or forgotten me, or to what or to whom 
hast thou given me up — my soul abandons itself to one idea, 
" My Lord, my love is crucified" Room for him in my heart ! 
ay ! as a good man exclaimed, " Though half the inhabitants 
of my soul must turn out to make room for him ! " Emotion 
may subside, but the desire of my heart never — that the love 
of Jesus to me, and mine to him, may be lasting as existence 
— interwoven with every thought, passion, and sensation of 
my being, and in extent to eternity! The time was when 

Mr. felt the same ; when he exclaimed, " Jesus, help 

me to hide myself in thy wounded side, and there may I find 
safety ! Wash me in thy streaming blood, and there may I be 
clean ! " Alas ! alas ! And can he now trample under foot the 
memory of the Son of God, and cast contempt on that blood 
in which he once trusted ! Let him read, and tremble while 
he reads, Hebrews x. 26-31. If the justice of God was hon- 
ored in those tortures, and in that exquisite anguish of his 
dearly beloved Son, even unto death — let him be assured that 
the same divine justice will yet vindicate and honor itself in 
a terrible manner, upon him who despises or neglects such an 
atonement. So sure as the hand of God clothed the sun in 
mourning, while his dearly beloved Son was bleeding to death 
on the cross for the sins of the world, so sure will the hand 
of eternal justice clothe, eventually, that soul in eternal mourn- 
ing, living and dying in contempt of the scenes of Calvary. 
Thus much I am at liberty to say. May it prove an anti- 



306 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

dote against corruption. Such fearful changes do not indicate 
a strength of mind necessary for a leader. The man is far 
from rest and happiness. Bravado is no mark of the strength 
after which you seek. There are various methods of sustain- 
ing courage, both in self and others. Heroism, so called, has 
often trembled upon his legs, while stirring and nerving others 
for the conflict ! 

* * * * * * * 

That was a fine remark of one, that " a seeking after truth 
belongs to human nature, and is wont to be the last feature of 
it that perishes." Would that your "friend" were disposed 
as he should, to make room for it in his heart, nor longer keep 
it standing out of doors ! for it is nigh unto him, and has been 
so for years, although he has taken as wide a circuit to find 
it as Milton's Satan to reach Eden ! His heart, however, must 
be dispossessed of that viperous brood of doubts, before truth 
will consent to become a permanent inmate of his soul ! 

Marvel not, if under some circumstances, a man may in- 
quire with Pontius Pilate, " What is truth," all his life, with- 
out receiving a satisfactory reply : this is the destiny of I 

fear. Democritus exclaimed, centuries ago, " Truth lies hid in 
a pit that has no bottom ! " The truth after which he seeks, 
is bottomed on the word of God — " Thus saith the Lord." 
Search for it elsewhere, and he will be forced to a similar ex- 
clamation, that truth lies hid in a pit that has no bottom ! 
The pit in which he searches for truth contains it not — the pit 
of error, which connects, farther down, with " the bottomless 
pit; " although I would not vouch that he shall not find truth 
even in the latter pit. That was a tremendous blow given to 
one by an unknown poet : 



A STTR IN" THE CAMP OF UNBELIEF. 307 

" What is hell ? 
'Tis nothing but full knowledge of the truth ; 
When truth resisted long, is sworn our foe, 
And calls eternity to do her right ! " 

It was the saying of a good man, now with God, that the 
devil blindfolds many, and they never lose the bandage till in 
hell ; that many are playing blind-man's buff with Satan ; and, 
as those who engage in that play get many a knock and blow, 
if not bruises, it is so with the spiritually blind. Those who 
reject or neglect the Scriptures are easily blinded. God per- 
mits it judicially as a punishment. A blind man may stumble 
upon the gem he is seeking, but he is more likely to miss it. 
" If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that dark- 
ness," says Jesus Christ. 

It is written — "Thy counsels are faithfulness and truth." 
Well would it be for the world if of all counsels we might say 
the same ! Where the Scriptures have no voice, it becomes 
us to'be silent. " When they have no tongue, we need have no 
ears," said a pious man. An angel from heaven, when speak- 
ing with Daniel, could only say, " / will show thee that which 
is noted in the scripture of truth." Such a restriction is yet 
more befitting for us mortals here below. 

It is also written, " They that go down into the pit cannot 
hope for thy truth." It is as true of the pit of error as the pit 
of the grave. Your friend may depend upon it, if he leave 
the Scriptures in search of truth, he will evermore find him- 
self searching for it in a pit that has no bottom ; continuing the 
search, he may sink -so deep into that pit as never to find his 
way back into the light of the Gospel day. There was more ex- 
cuse for Socrates than for him, for that ancient sao*e had no in- 



308 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

spired Scriptures to consult, and yet tie was humble enough to 
confess, " This is one thing I know, that I know nothing." 
Would that he had something of his humility. Far back in 
time we read of one who said, "Neither know I this yet, 
that I know nothing ! " and yet another, " I am not ignorant 
that I am ignorant ! " These worthies have one successor in 
the nineteenth century, you perceive ! 

" Light to light and dark to dark, 
Kindred natures thus agree I " 

As to yourself, when you search the Scriptures for truth 
as for ahidden treasure, you are likely to find it. When you 
approach the Bible, saying, with an eminent person in Scot- 
land,* " Gift of our heavenly Father, dying legacy of an incar- 
nate Son, revelation of a kind and winning Spirit ! love shines 
on thy every page, and in thy very name thy generous mercy 
is proclaimed — Gospel, glad tidings, good tidings of good ! " 
Reverence for the word of God always links itself with prayer 
to the Author of the word. Luther observed that he profited 
more in the knowledge of the Scriptures by prayer in a short 
space than by study in .a longer. The book was sealed with 
seven seals, till John fell a weeping, which brought a voice 
down from heaven, saying, " Weep not : behold the Lion of the 
tribe of-Juda, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the 
book and to loose the seven seals thereof' 1 Why did he weep 
so? Because he apprehended that, had the book remained 
closed, the church and the world would have suffered a great 
loss. Prayer accompanied those tears, no doubt. When you 
properly understand the great loss it will be to you to have 
the book a sealed book to you, tears may be on your cheeks 
* Dr. Guthrie. 



A STIR IN THE CAMP OF UNBELIEF. 309 

also ! Tears are great orators in the estimation of Heaven. 
" Weep not," has been spoken to many a trembling seeker of 
light and salvation ! Prayers and tears and earnest cries ac- 
companied the giving of the Scriptures by inspiration ; and who 
more than Paul ? " / wrote to you with many tears" he 
says in one place. And what epistle did he begin or end 
without prayer ? Search the Scriptures in a similar spirit, and 
you shall find wonderful things in His law. In the mean time, 
let not our " loud praying " stumble you farther from the 
truth, and into such queries as, " Whether God hears prayer at 
all, or whether by implication He is not very far off;" for that 
is not the prevailing idea, but rather a result of zeal and ear- * 
ncstness. Distance would be a disturbing notion, for none of 
our voices sound much beyond the church premises. " Dis- 
tances," such as your queries would contemplate, the voice of 
a cannon would be as ineffectual to reach as a whisper from 
human lips. We know it is all the same for a divine hear- 
ing whether we pray in a loud or low key, provided we have 
sincerity and faith. But, as it is written, " According to your 
faith be it unto you" and faith may receive increase and 
strength, as the voice rises in strength and energy (which we 
know to be a fact), we entertain the stronger hope of prevail- 
ing thus with God. Observe, it was to the blind men, who 
followed him with a cry, that Jesus said, " According to your 
faith be it unto you." They " followed him crying." Think 
you that cry had no influence upon their faith ? It was full of 
hope, and hope increased the louder they cried ; but "faith 
is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things 
not seen" We know also that penitents who cry to God the 
loudest, and with the deepest emotions, come out in religion 



310 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

the clearest, and, indeed, are the most steadfast and useful 
afterward. This will hold good in nine cases out of every 
ten! (Matt. ix. 27-30.) 

Faith may be stirred and strengthened greatly by the 
energy of the voice where there is grace, and a cry in the soul, 
" / will not let thee go except thou bless me." Besides, it is 
written, " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man 
availeth much." Prayer of this sort is apt to be somewhat 
loud. Indifference in prayer is usually still enough, but, for 
all that, we are sure it meets with but little favor with 
God. Lukewarmness in prayer is as offensive to God as m 
anything else. (Rev. iii. 16.) 

I have little more to say. We consider nothing inconsist- 
ent in prayer that is countenanced or sustained by the word of 
God. If some of my helpers " pray as if they thought the 
arm of God, though mighty, is asleep, and needed an awaken- 
ing," the prophet Isaiah expressed something akin when he 
cried out, " Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the 
Lord ; awake as in the ancient days, in the generation of old." 
(Isa. lv. 9.) These men of God are well acquainted with the 
Scriptures, and also with the history of the church, especially 
with Methodism. They know well what God wrought by their 
fathers in their days, and that by prayer which " opened 
heaven " over many a congregation. They have also facts in 
their own history and experience. What prayer can do — 
mighty prayer ! — they know ; and are no way backward in 
taking the kingdom of heaven by the violence of prayer! 
(Matt. xi. 12.) 




CHAPTER XLIV. 

TO 1 A TALK WITH A SKEPTIC. 

'ELL, if you were present at the time in question, it 
was well ; better hear what you did hear than learn it 
" second hand." What think you of that line of a 

11 Truth is a staff rejected." 

What you have been leaning upon is no staff, but a reed ; and 
instead of supporting you, whether in actual sin, or unbelief, 
which has in it the seeds of all sin, it has bent, splintered, 
pierced your soul. For, has it not betrayed your trust, and 
failed you in the hour of need ? 

2. There is much less neutrality or indifference in the world, 
as to religion, than many good people suppose, or bad people 
pretend to. I am convinced of that ; and the judgment day 
will prove it. Indeed, as Dr. Adam Clark remarks, the devil 
seldom inspires indifference to religion ; the subjects in whom 
he works are either determinate opposers of true religion, or 
they are systematic and energetic transgressors of God's laws. 
And he quotes Ephes. ii. 2 as proof. 

3. Y our judgment, I fear, has had little to do in the matter, 
nor your reason, although passion may. In nineteen cases out 
of twenty, such opinions as yours have emanated from the 
tribunal of corrupt and misleading passions. Look within 



312 ARROWS FROM MY QUTVEK. 

and back upon the past, and assure me, if you can, that I am 
mistaken, so far as you are concerned ! The remark of one 
some years ago occurs tome, that opinions are generally formed 
on appearances, but the true judgment of things on investiga- 
tion ; that opinions are often crude, irrevelant, and inconsistent ; 
while the decisions of the judgment are systematic, regular, 
and consistent. He added, opinions are the fruit of passion or 
of feeling, while judgment reposes upon reason, and upon the 
word of God. 

4. That man in Ireland, who asked a similar question to 
your own, had no such mental embarrassments, for he was most 
sincere. He stood up and inquired, " What is truth?" and 
continued, " Long have I searched for it, and I have found it 
at last. There it is," holding out a New Testament, but, in- 
stantly putting it into his pocket, said, " It is prohibited " — 
meaning, by the Roman Catholics. Ah ! sir, you are no 
Romanist, and yet Satan and skepticism have succeeded in 
interdicting this book from being any test of your faith. In 
the reign of Henry V., a law was enacted in England, prohib- 
iting the reading of the Scriptures in English, on pain of for- 
feiture of " land, catel, lif, and godes, from their heirs for ever ; 
and be so condemned for heritics to God, enemies to the 
crown, and most arrant traitors to the land." There was a 
great "faming in the land" in those days, " not a famine 
of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words 
of the Lord." (Amos viii. 2.) And as predicted by the 
same prophet, so it came to pass in England, " And they 
shall wander about from, sea to sea, and from the north even 
unto the east ; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word 
of the Lord, and shall not find it" A knowledge of these 



A TALK WITH A SKEPTIC. 313 

facts renders the word of God very sweet and dear to English 
Christiaus ! 

5. What a difference between you, and those who were 
so grievously afflicted by that prohibitory law! Instead of 
searching for the word from north to east, and from sea to sea, 
you would take similar pains to avoid it ! In the one instance, 
we perceive the spirit and wickedness of the Romish Church ; 
in your case, the nature and spirit of skepticism and Satan. 
Ignorance of the Scriptures prevailed greatly in those days. 
But the difference between the effects of voluntary and invol- 
untary ignorance will be made apparent in the great day ! 

This is all I have time to say at present. 

******* 

6. So you think " Bible Societies are in the other extreme 
of the English Roman Catholic prohibitory law, poking the 
Bible in every man's face." Perhaps, sir, to render some men's 
condemnation in the last day more convincingly and irresistibly 
just. A provoking thought it may be, but true, nevertheless ! 
Your boast is nothing. All the infidels in Europe and Amer- 
ica cannot stop the progress of the Bible Society in either 
hemisphere. Before a circular saw gets under way, the strength 
of your little finger would detain it ; but once in motion, it 
would bid defiance to your whole body, ay, would cut its 
way through solid oak ! When a ship lies in port, motionless, 
a slender cord is sufficient to detain her there ; but once under 
way in full sail, before a prosperous gale, she would snap the 
strongest cable, or drag her anchor as your boy his plaything ! 
I know not what they might have done in the earlier stages of 
the Bible cause ; but now, sir, the saw is in motion, and it 
will surely cut its way through all error, superstition, and wick- 

14 



314 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

edness, over all the nations of the earth. The breath of pray- 
ing millions fills the sails of this cause, as well as the divine 
breathings of the Holy Spirit ; advance it must, in defiance of 
all opposition. 

7. These remarks you may apply also at your leisure to 
certain strictures on this revival now in progress. But one 
thing at a time. With the eloquent Summerfield I would say, 
" They cannot stop the progress of Bible Societies. Sooner 
may they arrest the sun at the antipodes, and prevent his 
rising to illuminate our horizon ; sooner may they confine the 
winds in the cave of ^Eolus, never again to cool and refresh 
our atmosphere ; sooner may they stem the mighty stream that 
leaves the mountain's sides, and interdict its progress to the 
ocean ! — for the word of God shall accomplish that which He 
pleases ; it shall prosper in the thing whereunto he has sent it ; 
the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth, as 
the waters cover the sea: the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 

The following sentiments, sir, of a great and good man now 
with God, are the sentiments of millions now upon earth, and were 
nevermore deeply felt than now ; and while I echo them, though 
imperfectly, through this temple, they will thrill our hearts, 
and for aught we know, the hearts of hundreds of millions in 
glory ! — that the cause of Jesus Christ is the only one which will 
live and prevail amid the wrecks of tune : strong as the arm of 
Omnipotence, it will hold on its majestic course, bearing down 
and crushing everything that resists its progress; everything 
that is placed on this foundation is safe — but inevitable ruin 
awaits everything beside. Woe to the man whose doctrines are 
not united with the kingdom of Christ; woe to the man who 
sets himself to oppose this holy kingdom ; Jesus Christ is 



A TALK WITH A SKEPTIC. 315 

made head over all things to the church. He has marched 
down the track of ages, holding the north in his right hand, and 
the south in his left, with his eye continually fixed upon this* 
siugle cause, and forcing all nations and events to pay tribute 
to it ; and the providence of God, like a column of light, con- 
tinually illustrates this fact ; and so it will be down the descent 
of time to the end of the world, prostrating all opposition ! 

And, whether my skeptical antagonist has relished these 
sentiments or not, others have ; and they will not be displeased 
if I draw upon the same source for more ! The same eloquent 
preacher predicted a glorious spring for our world, after tiie 
passing away of a long succession of wintry years ; when the 
beauties of holiness shall clothe every region, and songs of 
salvation shall float on every breeze ; then shall it be seen that 
this world was not made in vain. We have only to look down 
the vale of time, said he, to see — how transporting ! the miseries 
of six thousand years to come to an end, the convulsions of a 
disordered world composed, and the glory of Zion filling the 
whole earth. Lend me an angel's harp, he added, while I look 
forward to approaching scenes, which, distant as they then 
were, enraptured the souls of the holy prophets, when from 
the mount of vision they beheld across the shade of many 
troublous years the church standing on the field she had 
won, triumphantly shouting, " Lo this is our God ; we have 
waited for him, ; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.'''' 
Sometimes in their sorrows, while nothing was escaping from 
them but the sounds of a breaking heart, a glimpse of this 
glory would break upon their view, and the tear which stood 
in their eye forgot to fall, their half-uttered sigh died upon 
their tongue, they awoke to rapture, and exclaimed, " Thou 



316 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

shalt arise and have mercy on Zion, for the time to favor her 
is come, yea the set time is come." Hallelujah ! How such 
sentiments do fire my heart for the work of soul-saving! And 
how they have fired other hearts in this audience, also ! 

The skeptic, perchance, who has called forth these senti- 
ments just now, may have had a few sparks of Gospel fire flung 
in his cold heart ; though not warmed to the same degree as 
that infidel, some weeks since, in this town,* who declared that 
it was as much as he could do to refrain from shouting " glory " 
aloud, when listening to the verses which I heard a poor pious 
woman sing outside the walls of a certain fortified city. Some 
present who remember the circumstance will not be displeased 
to hear them again, that he who says he has always to look 
down to see a Christian, may know something of the comfort 
he enjoys along the valley road to heaven, and how high he 
shall have to look by and by to get a glimpse of him ! — if not 
from the icy peaks of infidelity, from a worse position — where 
Dives has yet to u lift up his eyes " to get a sight of Lazarus 
in Abraham's bosom. That humble woman sang the verses 
as if she wanted heaven and earth to hear them, her face 
beaming the while with heavenly radiance; and more than 
she, felt in that hour, but in a higher sense than Burns con- 
templated in that one line found somewhere in his poetry : 

" Over all the ills of life victorious I " 

Who the author of the verses was I know not. At my re- 
quest they were copied from her lips — they were new to me : 

" My rest is in heaven, my rest is not here, 
Then why should I murmur when trials are near? 

* Sheffield, England. 



A TALK WITH A SKEPTIC. 317 

Be hush'd, my dark spirit ; the worst that cau come, 
But shortens thy journey, and hastens thee home! 

" It is not for me to be seeking my bliss, 
Or building my hopes in a region like this ; 
I look for a city which hands have not piled, 
I pant for a country by sin undefiled. 

" The thorn and the thistle around me may grow, 
I would not lie down upon roses below ; 
I ask not my portion, I seek not my rest, 
Till I find them for ever in Jesus's breast. 

" Afflictions may damp me, but cannot destroy; 
One glimpse of His love turns all unto joy; 
And the bitterest tears, if He shine but on them, 
Like dew in the sunshine, turn diamond and gem. 

"Let doubt, then, and danger my progress oppose, 
They only make heaven more sweet at the close : 
Come joy, or come sorrow, whate'er may befall, 
An hour with my God will make up for it all I 

" A scrip on my back, and a staff in my hand, 
I'll march on in haste through an enemy's land ; 
The road may be rough, but it cannot be long, 
And I'll smooth it with hope, and 111 cheer it with song I " 

And now my text, Rom. i. 16. And who would be 
ashamed of a system of religion which thus cheers the poor and 
the afflicted ; and which gives us such constant assurances of 
final victory and triumph ? 



CHAPTER XLY. 



TO THE SAME BOLD IN THE PRESENCE OF FACTS. 

<} f$pT matters but little to me in what part of the sendee 
^VA good is done, and sonls are blest or saved, if they are 
^jg^jjj but blest and saved — before the text or after. The great 
object of preaching is to accomplish this very thing, and not 
to build up or sustain a reputation for learning or eloquence 
or being a great preacher. At least, this is my sincere and 
conscientious principle ; and I have to assure my curious hearers 
of this continually, at the risk of an appearance of egotism — 
they who happen to get disappointed, expecting some great 
things through vague reports about success and other things, or 
because they either suppose me capable or incapable of loftier 
pulpit exhibition and finer things; and, perhaps, as good 
Richard Baxter used to say to his hearers, were I a Christian 
no deeper than my throat, I would fish for myself, and study to 
please more than save. But, with that great and good man, 
I can sincerely say I do believe what I preach, and that the 
Judge is at the door — that we shall shortly see him in glory, 
and the host of heaven attending with acclamation ; or, that 
death and hell — apprehension and eternal condemnation — must 
ere long bring these matters to the quick. We may outface 
truth now, but death and judgment and hell's convincing argu- 
ments we cannot outface. 



BOLD IN THE PKESENCE OF FACTS. 319 

2. The Gospel has had many critics, and revivals of reli- 
gion as well. When men show disrespect to such manifesta- 
tions as we witness here daily, it is only another way of show- 
ing their secret contempt for the Gospel. For, be it known 
unto you, all of you, that it is the Gospel, plain Gospel truth, 
backed up by the power of God, which produces the effects 
which you do hear and see. A flippant individual is of the 
opinion that interest and passion will long hold out against 
the closest siege of diagrams and syllogisms — that they are 
absolutely impregnable to imagery and sentiment — will bid de- 
fiance to the most powerful strains of Homer and Virgil ; 
though he thinks they may give way in time to the batteries 
of Euclid and Archimedes ! 

3. The author from- whom I quoted the other day was the 
late Rev. Dr. Griffin, of the American Presbyterian Church. I 
could only refresh my memory from a few notes taken some 
years ago, not having the discourse at hand to consult. A 
fragment or two more met my eye among my papers from the 
same source, and may be useful just here. His remarks upon 
the final triumph of the Gospel, and the eternal destiny of the 
human soul, are worthy of your serious reflection. I did 
intend to have quoted them then as they occurred to me, but, 
having lengthened out my remarks farther than I had in- 
tended, and the case of that infidel who was so electrified as to 
shout " Glory ! " occasioning a digression, I found it inconveni- 
ent to return to my notes from Mr. Griffin, so had to let the 
matter drop. 

4. However, they may have as salutary effect now as then. 
He went on to say, " Ten thousand times ten thousand cap- 
tives shall drop their chains and come forth to light, with joys 



320 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

too big for utterance in the final triumph of the Gospel over 
all the earth and over all flesh. This miserable world of ours, 
once the emblem of hell, after being so long shaken with tem- 
pests, shall, like the waters of a peaceful pool, reflect the 
image of heaven. Paradise shall be restored, and then shall 
appear, to the confusion of the enemies of Christ, the blessed 
efficacy of the Gospel to heal the wounds of a bleeding world. 
Oh ! would not coldness," he added, " be rebellion in a Christian, 
when viewing such a scene from our Pisgah ? " In developing 
'the grandeur of the Gospel in its designs and revelations, he 
called upon his a*udience to follow only one human soul into 
eternity, and there trace its endless course through delights 
which flesh and blood could not sustain, or through fire suffi- 
cient to melt down all the planets — pursue it through the 
ascending degrees of its eternal progression, see it leaving be- 
hind the former dimensions of seraphim and cherubim, and 
still stretching toward God, or sinking for ever in the bottomless 
abyss ! And closed by an aspiration, if I remember aright, 
that his subject might burst like ten thousand thunders over 
the heads of all who were still faltering as to which side they 
would cling to a little Longer ! 

* ■ * * * * * * 

How often I have to reply to that question, " What is 
truth ? " Yet never once, in your sense, to a believer in di- 
vine revelation. Ponder that fact! " Truth." Would you 
acknowledge it if introduced to it, think you ? Truth, in gen- 
eral, is anything which is in conformity with fact. It is pre- 
cisely the opposite of falsehood and deception. Truth is that 
which Satan hates, and which every sinner hates, in proportion 
to the value of the game he is playing with the devil. Truth ! 



BOLD IN THE PRESENCE OF FACTS. 321 

it is what an old writer calls a beam of God, his essence, so to 
speak; he is "a God of truth" "and keepeth truth forever" and 
" his truth endureth through all generations" are Scripture 
phrases. The most orient pearl in His crown is truth. St. Paul 
speaks about " the pillar and ground of the truth" and of some 
who are " destitute of the truth" and of others, who " turn 
away their ears from the truth, unto fables ;" and yet of others 
who "resist the truth." Truth, like its divine Author, sir, 
finds not an easy passage through this world of ours ! 

5. Truth, as a pious man observed, is the pillar of our sal- 
vation — it is the rule of our faith, the root too out of which 
faith grows. It is that which prevents our faith from being 
fancy — faith without the support of truth, would be fiction. 
" Thy word is truth" said Jesus Christ, who called himself, 
" The way, and the truth, and the life." The Holy Spirit of 
God, who inspired and dictated the Scriptures, is called " the 
Spirit of truth." Here is a foundation upon which we may 
build high as the heavens ! 

6. Truth is the whole doctrine which Jesus Christ and his 

apostles taught. It is that, in part, for which his blood was 

shed, and to which the blessed martyrs testified in their death, 

and for which they suffered their blood to redden the earth. 

It is that the clear knowledge of which turns every man's sins 

to crimson before God. To hate truth, besides, is treason 

against his throne, and he will certainly treat it as such. To 

persecute truth is rebellion against its Author, for he that 

strikes at truth, strikes at God ; and he that hates truth, hates 

God. These are great truths, as sure as there is red blood in 

the arteries and veins of your body. To make out a proper 

estimate of a man's state and character before God, and of his 

14* 



322 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

prospects for eternity, we have only to find out how he treats 
the truth ! 

7. Your next inquiry must receive a short reply : " How 
may I know the truth?" How may you know the sun, that 
it is the sun, and not some transient meteor, or ignus fatuus, 
the offspring of some great quagmire or other ? How but be- 
cause it creates day, and leaves "no darkness at all" and is 
placed far above the reach and control and whims of men ? 
How but from the fact that you need no substitutes for his 
light when in the sky ? How but because you know that every 
thing that lives or grows or blooms, or is fruitful, lovely, or 
beautiful, is dependent upon his beams? How but because he 
cheers, warms, and delights you, unless, like some people who 
have sore consciences, and cannot bear the strong light of truth, 
you happen to have sore eyes, which are pained by his beams, 
and you are forced to exclude them, or to close your eyes 
against them ? Do you understand me ? 

8. The Bible is our sun ; and its doctrines and precepts 
and promises, its light and beams, its glory and its power. The 
Bible, like the sun, creates our day. It leaves no darkness 
within the range of its beams. It makes our day, and we need 
no infidel substitutes. It originates and nourishes whatsoever 
things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely y and of good report 
among men. (Phil. iv. 8.) Remove from the visible universe 
everything that owes its existence, beauty, usefulness to the 
sun, directly or indirectly, and what would we have left ? And, 
to use the sentiment of Mr. Everett, addressed in a letter to 
a great meeting of the American Bible Society, to which he 
was invited, but was unable to attend — that, were we to strike 
from the political, moral, and intellectual condition of mod 



BOLD IN THE PRESENCE OF FACTS. 323 

em society, all that has flowed directly or indirectly from the 
Bible, we would reduce European and American Christendom 
to the state of barbarous and semi-civilized countries, whose 
characters have been formed or powerfully influenced by the 
Koran, or other religious codes of the East. Annihilate the Bible, 
he added, and with it all its influences, and we should destroy 
with it the whole spiritual system of the modern world, all our 
great moral ideas, refinement of manners, constitutional govern- 
ment, equitable administration of law, and security of property, 
our schools and benevolent associations, the press, fine arts, the 
equality of the sexes, and the blessings of the fireside ; in a word, 
all that distinguishes Europe and America from Turkey and Hin- 
dostan ! Ponder these sentiments, and then hearken to what 
your heart says, when you inquire how you may know truth ? 
9. It is not without reason, then, that we sometimes call . 
the Bible " The sun of revelation." The Bible was made for 
man, and man for the Bible. Observe the motions of your 
conscience and judgment when you read it or hear it read, 
and you shall know that it is the truth, and the way of 
life. Let the voice of conscience and the wants of your soul 
drive you to secret prayer, and you shall find that there is 
scarcely a word or sentence on your lips, or upon your heart, 
that may not be traced to the Scriptures — showing, old as the 
Bible is, that it is entirely up to the wants, emotions, and con- 
ceptions of the soul in the nineteenth century as in bygone 
centuries. The Scriptures have to come to our aid in all 
our approaches to our Creator, else silence would sit 
upon our lips, and stillness and death within the soul. 
Oh ! sir, seek peace to your mind, and healing to your 
wounded conscience, through the. atoning blood of Christ, 



324 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
free ! 

7. Nor is this peculiarity confined to the first stages of re- 
pentance and faith. The emotions of the newly converted soul 
and the higher experience and joys of the advanced Christian 
are all supplied with appropriate language from the Scriptures ! 
Thus it is that truth, Scripture truth, and its language, accom- 
pany us life's journey through, nor quit us when we die. The 
Bible waits on goodness, and attends the good man all the 
way, as light and glory attend the sun, till he sinks quietly 
down under the arches of the west. It is in the society of -the 
Bible, and there alone, we realize the truth of that sentiment 
of Jamblichus, the ancient philosopher — " As light naturally 
and constantly accompanies the sun, so truth accompanies 
God and all that follow him !." Blessed be God ! 

****** * 

I have no wish now to go into other themes. He spoke truly 
who said, " Those who reject the truth are abandoned by the 
just judgment of God to credit the most degrading nonsense." 
The grossness and absurdity of most deistical creeds abun- 
dantly prove the truth of the assertion. 

There is no such cross-firing in the Scriptures as you 
suppose — no self-contradiction. " The Scriptures cannot be 
broken" says our Lord. That fact is an article in our creed, 
from which we cannot be shaken. God, to use some of the 
allusions of Scripture, breaks the teeth of the young lions, the 
ships of the mighty, and the teeth of the ungodly, but he will 
not, cannot break his own word. He breaks the high arm, and 
wickedness, as a tree ; the earth he makes to tremble, and it is 
broken by his will ; the staff of the wicked, the rod of the 



BOLD IN THE PRESENCE OF FACTS. 325 

smiter, the cords of wickedness are broken by him ; the 
graven images and their altars, the yokes and bars of kings 
and their kingdoms and their hearts are broken, even as the 
vessels of a potter, and all the adversaries of the Lord are 
broken. Ay ! but the word of the Lord — the declarations of 
our God in the Scriptures — he will never break, "for the Scrip- 
ture cannot be broken ! " He will not break his own word, 
upon which he causes the hearts of his people to trust. He 
has built much of his glory upon his truth and faithfulness to 
his word and promises. (2 Cor. i. 20.) 

Jesus Christ, blessed for ever ! while upon earth pointed 
to the heavens, and then to the earth, and then to the Scrip- 
tures, and then declared that sooner than one jot or tittle of the 
law or word of God should fail, or come to nothing, heaven above 
and earth beneath should disappear for ever! (Matt. v. 18.) 
Before the eyes of that startled multitude which surrounded 
him, many of whom " had set light by the word of God," and 
questioned its truth, he pointed to these visible objects, and 
astounded them with the declaration that God would sooner 
let heaven and earth pass away and perish, rather than suffer 
that or any other portion of his word to fail of accomplish- 
ment ! " It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than 
one tittle of the law to fail." (Luke xvi. 17.) Need you marvel, 
then, at our trust in the Scriptures ? Or that we all received 
that promise on last Friday night with such simple and implicit 
confidence ? (Mark xi. 24.) Or that such evident replies from 
Heaven were received among the people, and with such 
astonishing effects ? 

" How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, 
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word ! " 



326 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Be it known unto you, also, that it is by the same un- 
wavering confidence in divine veracity that we predict the 
destiny of those who die believers or unbelievers. Instance that 
declaration in John iii. 36, which spreads itself as a canopy 
of mercy over the believer in health, death, and in heaven, 
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life;" and, at 
the same time, as a canopy of wrath over the unbeliever living, 
or dying, or in hell, "And he that believeth not the Son shall 
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him ; " — backed 
up by the most awful decision of our Lord himself in his great 
commission to preach the Gospel to all nations, " He that be- 
lieveth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." 
From these Scriptures there is no getting away ; you must 
either believe or renounce them, but the risk is undeniable. 

In view of these solemn declarations, the inferences of a 
celebrated divine are sound and convincing, that the same pas- 
sages of Scripture upon which God has embarked his declara- 
tion of mercy to the believer, he has also embarked his declara- 
tion of wrath against the unbeliever ; and that there is a law 
in the Gospel as unfailing as any law in nature, which binds the 
present state of a faithful believer here with the transports of 
his glory hereafter ; and there is a law and a scries of con- 
sequences in the Gospel as unfailing as any series of processes 
in nature, which binds the present state of the obstinate sinner 
upon earth with all the horror of his future wretchedness in 
hell — that the faith in Christ to which we are invited in this 
world has its sure results in pardon, regeneration, and holi- 
ness, a happy dying hour, a bright ascent upward, and a wel- 
come admission into heaven, and an eternal occupation in the 
empire of peace and joy ; and the unbelief to which Satan and 



BOLD IN THE PRESENCE OF FACTS. 327 

a corrupt will invite the sinner has as sure a result in hardness 
of heart, a miserable dying hour, and its landing-place in hell. 
How fearful, then, the peril of a sinner ! Could you blame 
him who declared that he would not live an unbeliever one 
hour for all the world ? The reason he gave was that he might 
die and go down to hell in that hour. Need you wonder, 
then, at the exclamation of one, " All the words of men and 
angels cannot describe the awfulness of being Christless ? " Or 
the sentiment of another, as well try to measure eternity as a 
sinner's danger out of Christ ! Ponder these things, and may 
the spirit of God apply them to your heart and conscience. 
Amen ! 

******* 

Let " a bemoaning Ephraim " listen ! Truth ? To be sure 
it is ! " Truth must be eternal in its nature, without the pos- 
sibility of ever becoming falsehood." But why should you 
moan over that, if you are willing to allow truth to bring you 
a weeping penitent to the feet of Christ ? Truth is designed 
for the eternal soul of man, and that soul for a God of truth, 
to enjoy his smiles for ever and ever ; but, as St. John says, 
11 No lie is of the truth;" nor did God ever design falsehood 
to be the element, or any part of the element, upon which the 
human soul should feed ! That man is the only creature of all 
creatures in this visible world, who is capable of contemplating 
God in his works, and of offering him adoration, needs no par- 
ticular argument or illustration from me. If you admit it, 
there we may leave it. 

If, however, the human soul be so endowed and intended 
to love, serve, and obey God, he never designed it should be- 
lieve a lie, and thereby become a lying soul. But, would it 



328 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

not be the greatest wonder philosophy has ever yet discovered, 
were it proved beyond contradiction that this God has never 
revealed to such a sonl some divine and infallible standard of 
truth? considering, too, its fallen state, its liability to err, and 
the prevalence of temptation, to which it is so constantly ex- 
posed ? To suppose that God has peopled this world with 
souls, destined thus, and yet has left it vacant of some revealed 
standard of eternal truth, is an absurdity I, for my part, could 
never believe. It would be an anomaly in government exhib- 
ited by no civilized nation under heaven — subjects held ac- 
countable, yet without a code of laws having issued from the 
supreme authorities of the land. Believe it not; such a senti- 
ment is a lie, and Satan, who desires this world as an append- 
age of hell, is the father of it. It is bad enough as it is ; but 
deprive it of the Bible, and of all faith in the Bible, and hell 
itself would be its only equal ! Hasten to the throne of grace, 
and lay your reasonings at the footstool of Christ. His blood 
was shed as an atonement for your sins. Believe that fact, 
and you shall realize its truth in a sense of conscious forgive- 
ness. (Ephes. i. 7.) 

Are you aware that your sentiment quoted in the outset of 
these remarks, did not altogether escape Epictetus, the old phi- 
losopher of Hieropolis ? He observed, " Truth is a thing im- 
mortal, eternal, of all things most precious ; better than friend- 
ship, as being less obnoxious to blind passions!" Were he 
now upon earth, and had he been by your side when you gave 
expression to your sentiment, you might have received this 
caution from his lips : never to consider that as divine truth 
which fans the corrupt passions, draws the soul away from God 
and purity, which degrades and injures both soul and body. 



BOLD IN THE PRESENCE OF FACTS. 329 

One in the Bible exclaims, " There be many that say, who 
will show us any good f " But he prays immediately, " Lord, 
lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." Imitate 
his example, when they inquire, "Who will show us any truth ? " 
They are afraid of losing you, that is all ! Those who inquire 
thus, turning their backs upon the Bible, while viewing all its 
glorious effects in this land, might as well do the same to 
yonder sun as he is marching through cloudless and infinite 
blue, and then inquire for that which has enlightened our hemi- 
sphere, and filled sky and water, hills and dales, and meadows 
and mountain-sides with light and sunshine ! all the while 
doubting whether the real cause or source of all this has yet 
been discovered by any one! The sun is encompassed by 
mysteries inaccessible to the human understanding, and thereby 
enhances the glory of his Creator. The Bible, in like manner, 
has its mysteries ; and if it had not, I would doubt whether 
the same God is the Author of both ! Pray, oh ! pray that 
the Divine Being may lift up the light of his countenance upon 
you, and dissipate entirely that dark satanic shadow which yet 
lies across your understanding. 

Satan has an "outer darkness" in this world, as well as in 
hell ; nor need we travel far to find it. • I marvel at his dili- 
gence in excluding from it the light of revelation. (2 Cor. iv. 3, 
4.) May this revival, which already spans the gulf of dark- 
ness in this town, like that rainbow among the mountains of 
Wicklow which flooded a dark ravine with its many-col- 
ored glories, be the forerunner of a flood of glory from 
" the Sun of Righteousness" now undoubtedly in our sky ; — 
the revival, like the rainbow, announces the glorious fact. 
Hallelujah ! 



330 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

What a Golgotha is around us ! The time to favor Zion 
has come, and that ravine of wickedness may not be forgotten. 
The purposes of God may be great and merciful. Let us have 
faith in Him that lives and reigns. Those that pray for a re- 
vival, and watch for divine manifestations among a people, en- 
joy them most when they come. I have known some devoted 
people on the look out for the commencement of a work of 
God among their neighbors with some such emotions as a 
writer supposes we should have were we to hear of a design 
contemplated by God to subdue the rebellion of hell and to 
rescue its victims. How we would admire the unresting benev- 
olence of Heaven, and with what impatient longing should we 
desire to know the way in which the sun of the divine glory 
would arise on the blackness of darkness, and how it would 
paint its lustre on the clouds of perdition ! Blessed be God ! 
the glory of Jesus Christ is increasing both in intensity and 
saving power in this great work; and in a single hour the 
glory of the Lord may arise upon that region of the shadow of 
death ! Amen ! 

It will be better for you to dissolve that connection. In 
cutting off your " sins at a stroke," let the next stroke sever the 
tie that binds you to that evil companionship. This is my ad- 
vice. All your movements will be feeble and wavering until 
then. Some of those " caveats " of him who calls himself your 
friend, are forcibly put, and cleverly sustained ; but what of 
them ! " Cui bono ? cui mala ? " exclaimed the old Latinist ; 
"what good? what evil?" Ay! what good can they accom- 
plish ? but what evil they may do ! To what evil do they 
tend! Alas! a Sabbath-school boy could tell you! And 
what does it all amount to ? The main question remains un- 



BOLD IN THE PRESENCE OF FACTS. 331 

touched. Those " notions," as he calls them, have not origin- 
ated with us. They are found in the Bible ; they flow from 
that book, as water from a fountain. The doctrines we teach 
are from heaven ! " The world's deepest well owes its treas- 
ures to the skies," said a pious man in Scotland ! 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

TO 'iONE OF THE SAME CLUB " A PHILOSOPHICAL DEIST. 

jXJ ET one of a certain club hearken ! I do not wonder 
™ =fiLa that Jerome brings in Tully with his oratory, and 
l^vfe 1 ?/ Aristotle with his syllogisms, crying out in Hades, 
"They that leave the light of the word, following the light 
within them (as some on earth speak), prefer the shining of 
the glowworm before the sun. 11 Burns was about as sound a 
theologian as yourself, when he held that the light which led 
astray was light from heaven ! I would not like to assume, 
with Jerome, that either Tully or Aristotle are in a place of 
misery. If they had not the Scriptures, their accountability 
was less. There is a light, of which St. John speaks, " which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 11 And Paul 
instructs us to believe that " a manifestation of the Spirit is 
given to every man to profit withal. 11 If they walked accord- 
ing to the light they had, which, indeed, some think doubtful, 
it is now well with them. If among the lost, their condemna- 
tion is less severe than that of those who had the light of 
revelation, but renounced it for something which they called 
light, but which gave them little trouble in an evil way. 

2. When we neglect the Bible — to use remarks I have read 
somewhere in Dr. Chalmers' works — when we neglect the Bible 



A PHILOSOPHICAL DEIST. 333 

we insult God, as we would insult an acquaintance in sending 
his letter back unopened, or letting it lie by us unread. When 
we place our hands upon the Bible, he added, we have come in 
contact with the very materials of a communication from the 
Deity. In the breast of God there was a motion and a desire 
toward our species, and hero is the expression of it. To many 
this conveys nothing new. They are aware of it all ; yet most 
woefully heedless are they of the obligations they are under 
to read and ponder the mind and will of God therein revealed. 
What are they doing who refuse its perusal, or who treat it as 
a thing of insipidity ? Are they not trampling into insignifi- 
cancy a formal embassy from heaven ? In this blessed word 
of God we find light and direction, and offers of mercy and 
eternal life, open to all, and at the taking of all ; and in pro- 
portion to the frankness and freeness of its offers will be the 
severity of our condemnation for the neglect. Those lines of 
Lord Byron are in place here. Hearken : 

" Within this awful volume lies 
The mystery of mysteries. 
Oh ! happiest they of human race, 
To whom our God has given grace 
To hear, to read, to fear, to pray, 
To lift the latch, and force the way ; 
But better had they ne'er been born, 
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn." 

3. It is only ignorance of the Scriptures, or want of patient 
investigation, which has tempted you to complain of " the pau- 
city of themes " introduced in the Scriptures. That a man 
may read that book over, and remain after all an infidel, I do 
not deny ; but I doubt whether, after perusing the Bible with 



334 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

any degree of attention, any one could honestly prefer that 
charge. However, until you are more explicit, it is not worth 
while to enlarge. Be so good as to give me a list of the themes 
in which it is deficient. But let me advise you, first consult a 
good Concordance — Crudcn's — before you commit yourself too 
far ! Not a few, sir, in trying to catch the Bible in error, have 
been caught by it themselves ! Therefore be on your guard ! 
It is a wonderful book, the Bible ! A couple of infidels were 
standing together on the deck of a vessel, as she sailed past a 
desolate island of the sea. One said to the other, " Suppose 
you were condemned to live upon that island alone, and had 
the choice of but one book for your companion, what book of 
all books would you choose ? " The other replied, " I would 
select Shakspeare, because of the variety of his themes." 
"Well," rejoined the other, "although I do not believe the 
Bible, yet I would choose it for my companion, for the Bible 
is an endless book. 11 Ponder this incident at your leisure. 
* ****** 

Hold ! dear sir. Have you never read the reply of one of 
the ancient fathers to a clamorous disputant, who shouted, 
" Hear me ! hear me / " " I will neither hear thee, nor do 
thou hear me ; but let us both hear Christ ! " Ay ! would that 
all controversialists could be brought to abide by the decisions 
of such an umpire ! If it put not an end to all controversy, 
it would greatly lessen them ; certainly it would end one point 
of dispute between thee and me ; that one declaration of his, 
for instance — " Marvel not at this ; for the hour is coming, in 
the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and 
shall come forth : they that have done good, unto the resurrec- 
tion of life ; they that have done evil, unto the resurrec- 



A PHILOSOPHICAL DEIST. 335 

Hon of damnation.'''' (John v. 28, 29.) Marvellous indeed is 
the announcement. Believe Jesus Christ, and the matter is 
settled beyond dispute. His words are unmistakable. I be- 
lieve, and until death shall abide by his decision. Here I 
stand immovably, upon the veracity of the Son of God. If 
you refuse to believe my Lord and Master, his servant has no 
more to say upon the subject. To the honor and glory of Him 
I love, this determination I owe. One remark, however : a 
" resurrection into damnation' 1 '' does not mean annihilation; 
such a construction is merely gratuitous. 

Socrates and Plato spoke well of the Supreme God; and 
so did many other noble minds among the ancient philoso- 
phers, poets, and orators. But tell me whether you have ever 
met any sentiments in their writings equal to those four 
divine sentences in holy writ ? — " God is a Spirit ; " " God 
is one; " " God is light ; " " God is lover Here, as one ob- 
serves, we find spirituality of essence ; unity of substance ; 
purity of nature ; and benevolence of character. In that one 
sentence of an inspired apostle, " The world by wisdom knew 
not God" he quite disposed of all the notions of your heathen 
classic literati ! 

As to " the triumph of science " affording a " triumph to 
deists" — in what, I pray? — leaving "the testimony of the 
rocks " out of the question — which are but cold and senseless 
things, and their strata and material, after all that has been 
spoken and written of them, are too uncertain for reliable data, 
especially with regard to such an old rent and torn and shaky 
planet as we occupy ! Besides, sir, there is found in the Bible 
a record of a terrible event which occurred nearly two thou- 
sand years after the creation of the world, according to Mosaic 



336 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

chronology, which greatly affects the testimony of the rocks, 
and of the whole strata of the earth, to a vast depth. It looks 
to nie like a sort of intercepting provision of Providence, to 
defend the Holy Scriptures from the reckless deductions and 
conclusions of some geologists? I mean the deluge, sir! — of 
which God declared his determination beforehand, U I will de- 
stroy them with the earthy By sound inference, the strata, if 
not the entire constitution of the earth, met with as thorough 
a breaking up and breaking down, as society did upon its sur- 
face, and as the respective body of every particular sinner 
who perished in that wide, universal grave of waters. (Gen. 
vi. 13.) 

It is recorded of the same event also — " On the same day 
the fountains of the great deep were broken up." Vast reser- 
voirs of waters rushed to the earth's surface. Now the conse- 
quent vacuum they left behind — the pressure from above, and 
terrible convulsions attending, and the sinking of " the circum- 
ambient strata" into the vacuum beneath — contributed largely, 
doubtless, to the fulfilment of the threatening already alluded 
to — "/ will destroy them with the earth' 1 '' — the people and 
creatures on its surface, equally with the earth itself. If you 
can imagine how complete their organic or physical destruc- 
tion was, it may afford you some conception of that which befell 
the earth at the same time. The breaking down of the earth's 
substance, and its consequent amalgamation once more with 
the all-pervading waters — the strata, various in materials and 
gravities, resettling into those beds where our curious and 
inquisitive geologists have found them — must ever render their 
deductions regarding the age of our globe exceedingly unre- 
liable. 






A PHILOSOPHICAL DEIST. 337 

But what I desired to inquire of you, for I did not intend 
to linger so long " among the rocks," was this : in what de- 
partments of " moral science " have the deists won any tri- 
umph over revelation — in any one of these three extensive 
fields of investigation — the attributes of God, the properties of 
the soul, the nature of morals ? Are you not aware that so 
late as the early part of the present century, one of the most 
learned men in England, one who perhaps had no superior in 
Europe or America, challenged, as it were, the whole civilized 
world to show whether any writer, after exerting his utmost in- 
genuity, has been able to add a single principle to the system 
of divine truth, not already laid down in the Bible — or to dis- 
cover one attribute of God beyond those recognized in that 
book — or anything new relative to the human soul — or to add 
a single article to the system of morals taught in the Old 
and New Testaments. He admitted that much had been writ- 
ten upon all these subjects, without adding anything to what 
had already been recognized upon the pages of divine reve- 
lation. Deists wer§ silent; the learned world was silent, and 
indeed have remained so ever since, upon the subject. No 
attempt was made to falsify the assertion. Accept the chal- 
lenge yourself. It is not too late. Here is a fine opportunity 
to immortalize yourself; certainly one benefit is sure to accrue, 
as by this means you will become better acquainted with the 
Bible and the vastness of its resources. 

" A wonderful book is the Bible ! If it was " written at an 
age comparatively barbarous, and before science had developed 
itself" — yet the discoveries of science have not in anywise 
proved its incompleteness. At the end of eighteen hundred 

years, after all that science has done for the world, the Bible 

15 



338 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

maintains its position and claims to originality, upon the 
greatest and most important themes that could occupy the hu- 
man mind. To what else than divine inspiration are we to 
ascribe such facts as these ? To me they are most convincing 
and comforting, and sufficient to induce me, without hesitancy 
or scruple, to venture my all for time and for eternity upon its 
decisions. 

******* 

The trio — those " three friends " of yours — had better cor- 
respond with themselves, in their own way, as they seem very 
well adapted to each other. They would be sure to get out of 
humor with me ! Can you discern to which of the three the 
following remarks of an acute observer are applicable? He 
says there are certain minds of so inert and frigid a tempera- 
ment, that any reference to things of a spiritual nature is 
lost upon them — being altogether too refined for their taste. 
Any object raised one inch above the level of this life, is too 
lofty for their conceptions. The molehills on the plains of 
this world are their only mountains ! With regard to another 
of them, his " thoughts " are well enough in their way, when 
allowed to keep on in a certain direction ; that is, when, like 
Berengarius, he disputes about things investigable by the light 
of nature ; pausing there he becomes something of a Solon. 
But when he projects his thoughts beyond, into subjects of a 
spiritual and eternal nature, he quite loses himself, and circles 
round and round like a bat — tempting one, if near him, to. 
shout Tasso's line into his ear — " reasonings " 

11 That circle round and round, nor reach the seat of sense I " 
As to "the third of the three," I deprecate his infirmity of 



A PHILOSOPHICAL DEIST. 339 

temper ; so the less said the better ! They tell a story in Ger- 
many of one Peter Schlemihl, who lost his shadow ! When 
a man's method becomes so attenuated and unsubstantial as to* 
be without a shadow of a truth, I think of Peter Schlemihl ! 



CHAPTER XLVII. 




TO 



'HERE did you fall in with that French word ! Poor 
defences for your ramparts, if these are all you can 
oppose ! A Frenchman, from your manner of ex- 
pressing yourself, would be apt to give it a different turn ! 
Come, come ! You must elevate your style, even though your 
theme be low and unworthy of anything better. But you 
should remember, when talking or writing upon the doctrines 
and morals of the Christian religion, they have had appropri- 
ated to them the finest style of our language, even by oppo- 
nents. Elevate your language, then, away with slang phrases 
and mere play upon words, else you may force me to apply 
with more pungency than is consistent certain caustic defini- 
tions of a writer who wielded the quill last century ! 

" A juggler is a wit in things, 
A wit is a juggler in ideas, 
A punster is a juggler in words ! " 

It can do your cause no good, while it excites contempt in 
persons of understanding. You skeptics should respect your 
system, so far, at least, as to clothe it in decent language when 
advocating it. Rather difficult, I suppose; yet, it may bo 



34:1 

worth an effort. A rogue succeeds better when well dressed ! 
The higher classes of society are much taken with style. Vol- 
taire, Rousseau, Hume, Bolingbroke, and others captivated 
with the brilliancy of their style. 

The abruptness of my own style may be a' fault, but my 
hearers perceive it is forced upon me by other and more press- 
ing claims. Self-denial is required often in avoiding enlarge- 
ment when a theme opens invitingly before me. A stern 
valuation of time and words may be a virtue, though at the ex- 
pense of grace of style. This is an age of verbosity and pro- 
lixity, and it is well when circumstances sternly forbid both. 
But the faith of God's people, ay, and of sinners, is not to 
stand in " the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 

I like the sentiment of Addison, that if we must lash one 
another, we should do it elegantly, even though it be with the 
manly strokes of wit and satire ! I am also of the old phi- 
losopher's opinion, that, if I must suffer equally from one or 
the other, I would rather it should be from the paw of a lion 
than from the hoof of an ass ! 

However, some allowance should be made for your system. 
I remember a remark of Boileau, the French critic, that it is 
impossible for any thought to be beautiful which is not just, 
and has not its foundation in the nature of things, and that no 
thought can be valuable of which good sense is not the ground- 
work — a sentiment quite sufficient to dry the ink on every 
sceptic's pen. There is a natural way of writing, of which 
Addison speaks, that always carries with it a beautiful sim- 
plicity — a style which he admired in the ancients, and which 
renders their composition so charming in the present day. He 
thought no one deviates from their style or from the natural 



342 



ARROWS FROM MY QTJIYER. 



way of writing but those who want strength of genius to make 
a thought shine in its own natural beauties. 

This is about all I have to say. Your heart is far from 
being happy. How can it be ? The end is to be yet more 
bitter. But I know a tree, the tree of life in the Gospel, a 
branch from which would sweeten the fountain of that heart of 
yours and the stream of its words ! Truly it would, as did 
that branch which Heaven directed Moses to cast into those 
wells of bitter water, recorded' in Exodus x., by which they 
immediately became sweet. But this privilege cannot be 
allowed me so long as you relish the fruit of that forbidden 
tree — skepticism. 

******* 

True, infidelity is the same now as in their day, but these 
were superior minds ! You may play on their fiddle, but you 
cannot make their music ! Do you understand me ? Have 
you never read the story of Gainsborough, who became so 
enamored of the music made upon a fiddle by the great violin- 
ist Giardino, that he was frantic until he purchased the instru- 
ment — like the servant girl in the Spectator, he thought the 
music lay in the fiddle ! — which he purchased at a high fig- 
ure, but was surprised and shocked when he found that the 
music of the instrument remained behind with Giardino, and 
all the scraping and screwing he could apply he could not 
coax out the music that had given him so much pleasure ! Can 
you make the application ? Those talented writers made infi- 
delity attractive to you; they played well upon the instru- 
ment ; it was not their theme, but their talent, which made it so 
attractive — for what is there in their system to charm any man 
of sense and virtue ? You have paid a high price already for 



34:3 

their instrument, and more is yet to be paid. Gainsborough 
did not mortgage his estate for the fiddle, but you have 
pawned your soul for this. Alas ! after all your scraping and 
screwing, its music is not to be coaxed out ! — it remains be- 
hind with the learning and talent of the Giardinos ! Let me 
remind you, by the spur of a merry poet of the last century, 

" And reasons good, 
By better only are understood ; 
Sharpen your wits, then, or you'll meet 
Contempt as certain as defeat ! " 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



TO THE SAME THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 



sok FEW remarks. The attention of "A looker on!" 
JlsL But, sir, Phocion, the Grecian, once wisely remarked 

"'4- y\^ ' 

^ZffSzh ^ a ^ J us ^ P ersuas i° n proceeds not so much from the 
ability of the speaker as from the disposition of the hearer. A 
good hint, which, you may profit by. 

As to the predictions of your friend, there is " a silver 
lining " to those dark clouds hanging on the horizon of the 
political and religious world. But many such clouds have 
gathered and dispersed without injury to either. " The Lord 
reigneih" The Bible and Christianity have encountered 
clouds and storms without number, but they exist and nourish 
still ; and never more deeply rooted in human confidence than 
now. Limited views are the necessary result of a circum- 
scribed position, like Ephemeron in the fable. That insect 
of a day, relating to its youthful kindred in its expiring voice 
how that it had seen the coeval sun arise in early youth climb- 
ing up the east, but, now that that sun was surely sinking in 
the western sky, an awful catastrophe or a final night might be 
safely predicted ! The ephemeron expired ; but the next day 
the sun arose in the east brilliantly as ever; before sundown, 



THE CHITRCH AND THE WOELD. 345 

however, there were other expiring ephemerons predicting, as 
before, his final extinction ! How many ephemerons have 
appeared in our world and disappeared since the days of Vol- 
taire, who, you are aware, predicted the annihilation of the 
Bible and the Gospel ! 

I am reminded of a sentiment uttered by a celebrated Prot- 
estant many yours ago. The King of Navarre, who was a 
Roman Catholic, and bitter in his opposition to the Protestant 
cause, had been speaking of its downfall, and how it would be 
brought about. The good man replied, " Sire, it assuredly 
behoves the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure 
blows, and not to strike them ; but may it please you also 
to remember that it is an anvil that has worn out many 
hammers ! " A German divine — the eloquent Krummacher — 
made a beautiful observation in one of his sermons some years 
ago. He said the Church of Christ overcomes by submission, 
and prepares a triumph for Christ by a triumph over herself; 
and either fights her battles like the sun, which dispels the 
mists, and causes them to descend in fructifying dewdrops, or 
like the anvil, which does not itself strike, but cannot prevent 
the hammers which fall upon it being split to pieces ! How 
often do we see those striking similies illustrated during a re- 
vival of religion ! For, what is true regarding the Church in 
general, is equally true of it in particular places. Though of not 
much account in the world, God's dear children are precious 
in his sight everywhere ; and he will teach them how to over- 
come, or else fight their battles for them ! 

To some superficial persons, the history of the Bible and 

the Gospel is next to a blank. And, as to their future history, 

it is natural they should look upon it as likely to be ephemeral 

15* 



346 AEEOWS FEOM MY QUIVER. 

as their past. To others, however, their past is familiar, and 
replete with the most stirring events that have ever occurred 
on the stage of our world ; and their future they know, from 
yet unfulfilled promises, shall he rich and glorious — of the ful- 
filment of which they have the most undoubting faith. I must 
leave you to judge of these two classes of persons, which 
you consider the noblest and most reliable in matters of 
opinion. 

That the Bible has been assailed by innumerable enemies 
in past ages we know very well ; and that it still has enemies 
we are equally assured. But why it should be so, has per- 
plexed wiser heads than ours. " One might have hoped," says 
one, " that by this time antagonism to such a book might have 
ended ; a book that alights everywhere with healing in its wings, 
that has dissolved the worst fetters of humanity, marked the 
line for ages between liberty and despotism, as it seems almost 
about to do in our own between civilization and reviving bar- 
barism, and has so gathered up in itself all the rudiments of 
the future, and the seeds of advancement, that its eclipse would 
be the return of chaos, and its extinction the epitaph of his- 
tory. The resistance of ages to this book, however, is, after 
all, its crowning legitimation. The Bible is too good for the 
race it has come to bless. It blesses them like an angel whose 
mission is peremptory, and it troubles too many waters in its 
work of healing to be left in peace. It is felt and feared by 
all the rulers of the darkness of this world. It is the visible 
battle-field of invisible forces, showing in the radiant faces of 
the martyrs that have died for it, and the unearthly struggles 
of those who have hunted it from the earth, what mysterious 
interests are suspended on its safety or its destruction." Can 



THE CHURCH AND THE WOKLD. 347 

you avoid appreciating the truthfulness of these remarks — or 
detecting of what spirit your friend is of — or the character and 
origin of your own impressions and feelings ? 

That infidels of all grades are on the alert at the present 
time, and with a deeper intensity of opposition to revealed truth 
than ever before, can hardly be questioned. The streams of 
error in these United States never were more numerous, nor 
so deep, nor so widely extended and insinuating as now — 
never so decidedly determined toward undermining religious 
truth, nor their united currents more directly setting toward 
the gulf of infidelity. And, unless the friends of truth are on 
the alert also, and in right good earnest, the inundation of 
error, such as neither we nor our fathers have seen, may lay 
waste for a time the fairest provinces of the Church of God, to 
the destruction of many. I say for a time ; for the gates of 
hell cannot prevail against the church. Jesus has declared it, 
and we believe it. No weapon that is formed against her shall 
prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against her in judgment 
will he condemn. This is her heritage from the Lord, and her 
righteousness of the Lord. Thus it is written, and so we be- 
lieve. (Isaiah liv. 17.) 

Before dismissing this subject, may I request you to direct 
your friend to the following remark, found in Whiston's Essay 
on the Revelation of St. John ? It may furnish him with an 
additional material of thought. That fine writer tells us that 
Sir Isaac Newton on one occasion observed that infidelity will 
overrun Europe before the millennial re^gn of Christ com- 
mences ; that the corruption of religion in all Christian estab- 
lishments cannot easily be purged away in any other manner ; 
that such establishments are likely to be subverted by violence 



348 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

and blood ; there being much reason to fear it will be impossi- 
ble to remove them in any other way. 

The signs of the times, now in the last half of the nine- 
teenth century, are, I admit, fearfully confirmatory. Whether 
the waves of European infidelity shall so accumulate as to sub- 
merge this Western world, or those of American infidelity reach 
and overflow Europe, He who sitteth on high knoweth. That 
we live in an era the signs of which are ominous of future 
trouble and distress, those who walk closely with God do per- 
ceive. The Old World is in much perplexity, and men's hearts 
failing them for fear, in looking for those things which are com- 
ing to pass there. This New World is groaning and travailing in 
pain in all establishments, political and religious, while wick- 
edness overfloweth like a flood. We have only to search the 
Scriptures, and take a catalogue of those sins which marked 
out nations of old for vengeance, to form an estimate of what 
lies before this nation, if it repent not. Compare the marks 
upon the present generation, with those of bygone gene- 
rations which received such bloody baptisms and other afflic- 
tions for their wickedness, and we may well tremble before 
a holy, just, and sin-avenging God. May the Lord have mercy 
upon us ! Symptoms are not wanting of divine displeasure. 
Clouds black and stormy appear and disappear. A crisis looms 
up ; the pulse of the nation quickens into feverish expectancy. It 
quickly passes away. It was only a warning that the elements are 
accumulating. The time has not come. Sin has not reached its 
height ; therefore the elements of national disorder are yet 
under restraint. The crisis has not terminated entirely; it has 
only removed its boundaries farther into the future. But 
blessed be our God ! he has reserved unto himself a remnant, 



THE CHURCH AOT) THE WORLD. 34:9 

whose peace is bound up with that of the nation, and they will 
not cease to pray that wrath may be averted. May they pre- 
vail ! The wants, necessities, and sins of the country call loudly 
for their prayers and earnest supplications. 

Is this a time, then, to level contempt against the Bible, 
that great palladium of the nation's safety ? I have not time 
to enlarge ; nor to say much upon your concluding question. 
I know not for a certainty, how many languages and dialects 
there are in the world ; not less, I believe, than between three 
and four thousand. This we do know, that the Bible has been 
translated already into the languages spoken by about six hun- 
dred millions of the human race ; and hundreds of thousands 
copies of the word of God are now passing from hand to hand 
among them ! There is hope for the world ! Blessed be God ! 
Glory to the Lamb ! Amen ! 




:•- 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

TURNING THE BATTLE TO THE GATE. 

ET those whom it may concern hearken ; for the 
thoughts of your hearts are about to be revealed. 
f^^y "Impatience!" I have had nothing, comparatively, 
to try my patience — nothing that I had not previously reckoned 
upon. " The carnal mind is enmity against God ; " and there- 
fore some saucy things may be expected to emanate from- it, 
where divine things are concerned. He who " enters the 
lists " against mind thus constituted and armed, without tak- 
ing such results into the account, has not properly studied the 
nature of mind in arms against God. Besides, impatient folks 
are those who are unwilling that others should think for them- 
selves. Now I allow poor infidelity its right, so far as I am 
concerned, to speak out all that is in it ! If it claim to be. " a 
science," let it bring its proofs, and allow itself to be tested by 
those rules to which other experimental sciences are forced to 
submit. If, however, that which claims to be a science, turns 
out to be merely the science of unbelief, its votaries must not 
expect to be treated with much consideration. Christianity, 
even as a science, challenges the world to investigate its claim. 
The simplicity of Bible terms is no argument against them, 



TURNING- THE BATTLE TO THE GATE. 351 

unless they are proved to be false. If they convey a true 
meaning, or a right impression, they must be admitted. Their 
simplicity is their honor. If science confirm and illustrate 
them, they must pass at full value, in the minds of all right- 
minded men. They are simply right. Science, by her tech- 
nicalities in explaining the laws of nature, renders them com- 
plex. The terms used in the Bible are as expressive as they 
are simple — designed for all capacities, in all ages of the past; 
yet may stand side by side with the more scientific terms of a 
higher state of civilization ; which, to have reached forward 
to when the Scriptures were written, would have rendered the 
Bible unintelligible for ages, to millions. Thus, as one ob- 
serves, " When God said, ' Behold, I set my bow in the clouds, 1 
had he said, * Behold, I will give water the property of refract- 
ing different colors at different angles,' how unintelligible would 
it have been until a later period of our world's history." Prov- 
idence rather designed, to use an idea of Dr. Chalmers, that 
every new triumph achieved by the mind of man in the broad 
field of discovery, should only serve to bind him more closely 
to the Bible ; and that by the very proportion in which phi- 
losophy multiplies the wonders of our God, we should prize 
that book. And so it comes to pass ; deny it who can ! 

Read over that challenge which the Lord God gave to Job 
out of " the whirlwind, 1 '' contained in the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 
41st chapters of the Book of Job. Let the collected learning 
and science of the nineteenth century be brought into compari- 
son with the philosophical hints therein contained. Sir, those 
chapters will strike you with amazement — at the height and 
depth, at the correctness, beauty, grandeur, sublimity, of the 
philosophy therein exhibited. A great critic considered the 



352 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Book of Job the Idumean Encyclopceiia, but these chapters, if 
not altogether that of themselves, contain a sublime system of 
philosophical inquiry unequalled in the literature of ages. In- 
deed, as one remarked, the Book of Job is accounted on all 
hands a work that contains the purest morality, the sublimest 
philosophy, the simplest ritual, and the most majestic creed ! 
And yet, sir, this is but one book of the Bible, and that the 
oldest portion of it, perhaps. Had I time at command, and 
you were so disposed, a review of the different books in that 
Book of books might change your opinion vastly upon the 
subject in question. 

Engagements prevent me from entering into discussions 

with Mr. upon certain topics ; but the pebbles in the 

streets might as well aspire to hold competition with diamonds 
as his notions with the sublime truths of Christianity ! If he 
were the only skeptic in the world, and the world itself what 
God would have it, he would be the wonder of the world ! 
Wander where he would, all eyes would be turned upon him 
with pity and astonishment. People would call upon each 
other to look upon a man who preferred fancies to fact ; one so 
near eternity, yet doubting whether he has an immortal part 
to enjoy it — so near to hell, yet questioning whether he has a 
soul capable of enduring its flames ; one who knows not the 
day nor the hour he may be sent there, yet careless as if he 
had a lease of life for fifty years to come — turned away from 
the sublime truths of revelation unto fables. 

There is much apparent assurance in his sophistry; yet 
his own judgment cannot but assure him how poor an ex- 
change it would be to part with a sweet and comfortable hope 
of a life to come, for anything he has yet offered ; and the 



I 



TUKSTING THE BATTLE TO THE GATE. 353 

sweet thought that angels are the sharers of our joys — that 
they are ready to congratulate us as we enter eternity, stand- 
ing ready to take us by the hand when the body sinks in 
death, " not leaving the soul," as an excellent departed one 
observed, " like a shipwrecked mariner on a desolate and un- 
known coast, uncertain in what direction to travel, but to be at 
once under the convoy of sister spirits ! " Ay ! under the con- 
duct of angels who hail the soul the moment it steps upon 
those immortal shores, bearing it away into the presence of the 
general assembly and church of the first-born. That angelic 
convoy with the soul of an ascending Lazarus on their wings 
affords us a glimpse of the economy and usages of the spirit 
world, and very assuring and cheering to our faith it is! 
Comfortable thoughts, sir ! Comfortable thoughts ! And he 
must excuse us if we hold fast to them, until he is able to 
offer us something better ! 

An honest peasant surprised an infidel, the other day, who 
was jeering him for believing the Bible, by the reply, " We 
country-people like to have two strings to our bow." " What 
do you mean ? " inquired the infidel. " Only this," rejoined 
the poor man, "that believing the Bible and acting up to it, is 
like having two strings to one's bow ; for, if it is not true, I 
shall be a better man for living according to it, and so it will 
be for my good in this life — that is one string to my bow ; 
and, if it should be true, it will be better for me in the next 
life — that is another string, and a pretty strong one it is. But, 
sir, if you do not believe the Bible, and, on that account, do 
not live as it requires, you have not one string to your bow. 
And oh ! sir, if its tremendous threatenings prove true, oh ! 
think what then will become of you ? " The infidel walked on. 



354 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Consider what I am going to say : If the supreme God 
acknowledge the Bible in eternity as his word, it will ruin you 
both. All the arguments you have ever mustered against it 
here, shall go for nothing there; nay, but will recoil upon 
your trembling spirits, and with a force you little contemplate. 
******* 

Yes, some read the Bible to " catch it " in some contra- 
diction or other, and are themselves caught by it; of which 
fact your neighbor has become a witness lately. Nor is there 
anything very surprising in this, on the principle that it has 
come from God. Although his feelings are somewhat "dis- 
agreeable " at present, a happier state of mind is in reserve for 
him. The bitter first, and then the sweet; death first, and then 
life, seems to be God's order with sinners. "I kill, and I 
make alive: J wound, and I heal," is the voice of God 
in Deut. xxxii. 39. Not, " I make alive, and kill ; I heal, 
and I wound." The worst comes first. Satanic policy is 
different. 

It may stand to the credit of no mean scholar, that he 
despised not the hint of a humble person that there was some- 
thing in the Bible that would repay him, if he laid aside his 
poetry for its perusal. He did so, probably to " hunt after 
poetry ; " but truth hunted him, and ran his conscience down 
at length, and caught the man ! He had not finished the Book 
of Genesis, it seems, until doubt and unbelief were finished in 
him, terminating with an earnest cry for peace with Jacob's 
God, and he found it too ! And found, besides, that " that which 
is highest, purest, liveliest, and most excellent to the mind, in 
reference to any object, is poetical ; " all of which, to his sur- 
prise, he discovered in the Bible, and in the highest perfection ; 



TURNING THE BATTLE TO THE GATE. 355 

even as Cowley freely acknowledged, that all the books in the 
Bible are either the most exalted pieces of poetry, or the best 
materials in the world for it ! 

It is a wonderful book, the Bible ! That necromancer who 
prided himself in eluding the keenest eye in the multitude to 
" catch him in the mysteries of his art," was vain enough to 
suppose he could " catch the Bible in some palpable mystifica- 
tion — listening with a keen ear to the reading of the book of 
Jonah, little suspecting that " the keen eye of Heaven " was 
upon himself. Well, the prophecy of Nineveh's overthrow 
somehow overthrew him ; the sentence of death against them 
strangely resulted in life to him ; the prediction of their de- 
struction caused his salvation. True, there were some remarks 
by way of exposition ; but life and salvation flowed through 
the word ! Another great sinner was cut to the heart when 
reading Rom. ii. 21, 22. 

I have never been altogether assured that Luther himself, 
when he first made the acquaintance of the Bible at Erfurth, 
did not at first suspect it of heresy ; nor that he did not read 
it to " catch " it in that ; but it caught him, ay, and proved 
him and all his teachers heretics • it cast him into convictions, 
and into the dungeon of despair ; and, after he suffered awhile, 
unfettered his soul and introduced him to Gospel day, in pos- 
session of a heart made orthodox as itself; it opened before 
him the brazen doors of superstition and unbelief, set the pris- 
oner free, and sent him through Germany as a pillar of fire / 

It is a matter of the deepest surprise to some, and of 
amusement to others hereabouts, to behold how suddenly skep- 
tics are arrested by the truth, from week to week! To-day 
chuckling their " wise hits " against the Bible, and proclaiming 



356 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

victory over all its authority and predicted ills. A day or two 
more, and they are hit so hard by its tremendous truth, that 

they sob or roar aloud for mercy. Instance Mr. , whom a 

shrewd man compared to the cock in the Arabian fable, who 
" fell a clapping his wings," as if he had obtained a conquest 
worth crowing over ; presently down pounced a vulture (his 
idea of truth !) and snatched the great conqueror away ! If 
desperately astray in past life, and his appetite for error and 
death voracious, his awakenings to a new life were desperate 
also ! And now what an appetite he has for things spiritual 
and divine ! The Gospel is a great power, sir ! But had death 
pounced upon that man, instead of truth, how terrible would 
have been his experiences ! unless " God had suffered him to 
drop into the fiery lake with a senseless heart and a seared 
conscience." A grapple with " the king of terrors" and the 
apprehension of an immediate appearance before the dread 
tribunal of the living God, create very different emotions to 
those excited by a grapple with the living truth of the Gospel. 
Mope of salvation mingles with the bitterest sorrows of evan- 
gelical repentance. "Jesus Christ hath loved me, and gave 
himself for me, and I believe it ! " like words set to music, 
sounding through a thunderstorm, are heard amidst the loudest 
outcries of these distressed sinners ! " Christ is the end of the 
law" says Paul. " In these words lie the spring of my peace, 
as well as the dying song, with which I hope, at length, gently 
and blissfully to fall asleep," said a German Christian ! 

O ye astounded sinners ! ye old companions in sin of 
him who has forsaken your ranks, "flee from the wrath to 
come ! " For there is wrath to come — always to come, through 
all the future of a wretched eternity — always to come ! You 



TURNING THE BATTLE TO THE GATE. 357 

may harden your hearts now, and set like flints your faces 
against God and his truth and righteous claims. " Who hath 
an ear to hear, let him hear ! " An irresistible power, unlike 
that which assails you in the Gospel, will presently lay hold 
upon you, and you shall not be able to elude or flee from it. 
That power from heaven that opens the gates of eternity before 
the dying sinner, and lays open at the same time his sins, and 
presses them, like thorns, against his quivering and bleeding 
conscience, is on the full march to meet you. As it has be- 
fallen several trifling sinners since these meetings began, so it 
is likely to befall you. Why linger? Why procrastinate? 
Why suppress your emotions ? Why stifle convictions ? Why 
stir to leave this house of God ? Why will you fly from the 
terms of offered mercy ? Why hurry thyself away, poor sin- 
ner ! — as if you could hurry away your mind from a thought 
that pursues it, an evil prediction which your own conscience 
admits there is too much ground for ! Weep now, for you 
ought to weep ! Sob now, for you ought to sob — but thank 
God, it is in mercy's sight. Pray now, for you ought to pray ; 
believe now, for you may believe, be saved, and live forever, 
through Him who died and rose again. 

To you who remain in your hardness, and firm in your de- 
termination to outbrave truth, oh ! I would say, with a faith- 
ful minister now with God, "The witness we are forced to 
bear is sad ; it is sad to us ; but it will be sadder to you, on 
the day when you shall know God will not be outfaced, when 
you might sooner shake the stable earth, and darken the sun 
by your reproaches, than outbrave the Judge of the world, or 
by your cavils, wranglings, or scorns, escape the hands of his 
avenging justice ; when you would give ten thousand worlds 



358 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

were they all turned into gold, pleasures and imperial crowns," 
that you had been on the Lord's side in time ; — or that t ou 
never had lived a year in time, or that you had had a heart to 
have employed it in other purposes than those which charac- 
terized your earthly career. 

O ye sinful men ! lacking words of my own, the words of 
good old Robert Bolton rush forth into my utterances, like 
coals of fire ; — as he cried, I cry. And oh ! when the heav- 
ens shall shrivel together like a scroll, and when the whole 
frame of nature shall flame about your ears — when the great 
and mighty hills shall start out of their places like frighted 
men — when the wicked shall call upon this* mountain or 
that rock to fall upon them — then shall ye know and ac- 
knowledge how truly right and blessed were they who in 
good season chose " the Lord's side ! " Ay ! on that day of 
wrath, when " no dromedary of Egypt nor wings of the morn- 
ing shall be able to carry you out of the reach of God's aveng- 
ing hand ; when no top of Carmel, no depth of the sea, or 
bottom of hell, can hide you from Him that sits upon the 
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb ; when no rock, nor 
mountain, nor the great body of the earth shall be able to 
cover you from that irresistible power that laid the foundation 
of them ; when no arm of flesh or armies of angels can pro- 
tect you from those infinite rivers of brimstone which shall be 
kept in everlasting flames by the anger of God ; " when anni- 
hilation, that last hope of the worn-out veterans in iniquity, 
would be a boon, lies beyond all possibility of accomplish- 
ment; "when you are chained up by the omnipotent hand 
of God among spirits damned, and in a place of flames and 
everlasting darkness, where there is torment without end and 



TURNING THE BATTLE TO THE GATE. 359 

past imagination ! " there, ye sinful aud unbelieving men ! 
there, with all the arguments of perdition around you, ring- 
ing in your ears, and burning into your souls, you shall be 
forced to acknowledge how safe and right and wise it was to 
be on the side of the Lord and of his people among the inhab- 
itants of time ! 

Think not, I beseech you, think not harshly of the stranger 
who thus addresses you ; nor think for a moment that he has 
never exposed himself to a similar perdition ; or that he has 
not in past life been made to taste the bitterness of sin. But 
you may look upon him as a sinner pardoned, saved by grace, 
and yearning for your salvation. Had my motives been differ- 
ent to what they are, the last half -hour might have been differ- 
ently employed — in what one a long time ago called flashy 
oratory, neat expressions, and ornaments of reading, and other 
things, which he said were common matters of ostentation in 
his day, and, alas ! too common in ours, by men who preach 
for their own glory, and not for the glory of Christ, nor the 
salvation of sinners — who have little sincere and hearty be- 
lief themselves, consequently little energy in trying to persuade 
others to believe. He spoke plainly who, two hundred years 
ago, called flattery in soul matters a species of selfish villany, 
that has but a short reward; and that those who are pleased 
with the exhibition of it in the pulpit to-day, may curse the 
flatterer forever. I would be faithful, my hearers, as one 
who knows he must give an account ! 

Time is on the wing. Death is nigh at hand, and Hell 
hard by. The Lord our God is present. The space for prep- 
aration is short; it is all that is allowed. Time knows no- 
thing of sleep or weariness ; trifle not with it, for it never 



360 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

returns ; your loudest cries could not call back one of its fled 
moments ; crowns and kingdoms and wealth of nations could 
not bribe or purchase back one hour nor one minute of by- 
gone time. Opportunities for salvation are indeed headlong ; 
and as one justly remarked, some of you present have not the 
least assurance of being out of hell an hour ! Oh ! fly to Christ. 
Cry for mercy. Believe, and be saved. " Repent, and believe 
the Gospel. Why not now ? Oh ! may those words which 
pierced a sinner to the heart pierce more to-night : " A man 
that may be damned before morning should seek religion to- 
night ! " Ay ! my friends, how many have departed from my 
humble ministrations to return no more — there was but a step 
between them and death ! Time with you and me will soon 
be over. Look around ! Look up ! See — 

"Remorseless Time ! 
Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe — what power 
Can stay him in his silent course, or melt 
His iron heart to pity ! 
On, still on he presses, and for ever. 

"The proud bird, 
The condor of the Andes, that can soar 
Through heaven's unfathomable depths, or brave 
The fury of the northern hurricane, 
And brave his plumage in the thunder's home, 
Furls his broad wing at night fall, and sinks down 
To rest upon his mountain crag. 

" But Time 
Knows not the weight of sleep or weariness, 
And night's deep darkness has no charms to bind 
His rushing pinion. 
On, still on he presses, and for ever I " 



CHAPTER L. 

TO ANOTHER THE BIBLE ON THE ASCENDANT. 

^xSKli ET " one who begins to respect the Bible " hearken. 

^|3Lp "While you respect it, others love it, and delight not 
i^^ct' only to believe its testimony, but to obey its require- 
ments. " Let him now come down from the cross and we will 
believe him" said the men who surrounded a dying Saviour : 
not a word about obedience, only that they would respect his 
veracity, and not turn it into ridicule. 

The remark was a just one — that the Bible is deep enough 
for the tallest reason, and fordable by the shortest ; that here 
the lamb may wade, and here the elephant may swim ! Ay, 
my friend, and here the tiniest hand may enrich itself with 
grains of purest gold, while the profoundest thinkers may find 
diving-places for pearls of great price, such as can be found 
nowhere else, such as augels might covet, and which, indeed, 
they " desire to look into" And there are mines along those 
streams of inspiration rich in ore more valuable than the gold 
of Ophir, and exhaustless. " My master's treasury differs from 
yours," said an ambassador of a certain prince to a great king 
who showed him his treasures. " Ah ! how is that ? "inquired 
the vain-glorious monarch. " In this : my master's treasury 
has no bottom, as I see yours have," alluding to the exhaust- 
less Indian gold mines possessed by the prince his master, 

16 



362 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

But the same may said of him whose treasury of truth and 
promise is in the Bible, and who knows how to work those 
mines; without bottom or limit they are, for the veins thereof 
run parallel with eternity. Whereas all other sources, books, 
scieuces, and what not, have their limits, and fail in the end, 
leaving us to depart into eternity alone, as Orpah did Naomi 
on her desolate return to Bethlehem, the city of her fathers. 
But the truths of the Bible cleave to the departing soul of the 
Christian as Ruth to Naomi, saying, " Whither thou goest, I 
will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall 
be my people, and thy God my God.'''' The truths of the Bible 
say the same, indeed, to the departing soul of the sinner, but 
with a very different meaning. You understand me, I suppose. 
Permit me then to congratulate you for your " discoveries," 
for, if they immortalize not your name among men, they may 
secure you what is better, a happy immortality in heaven. 

That most infidels are deplorably ignorant of the Scriptures, 
I have had frequent occasion to remark. How unphilosophical, 
then, is it for them, with all their boasts about philosophy, 
to suppose they can reason correctly about a system which 
they have not properly studied ! Your scholarship deserves 
credit, but (and you will agree with me) the manner in which 
you have studied the Bible in past years deserves no credit. 
There is not one science you have mastered that you did not 
thoroughly investigate the book or books which treated upon 
it, as acknowledged authorities. But the Bible, alas ! " con- 
demned at sight," while evidence against it was culled from 
" second-rate*" authorities, and from the pages of its oppo- 
nents. " Hear both sides, and then judge," was a maxim in 
Roman jurisprudence. The Bible has nothing to fear from 



THE BIBLE ON THE ASCENDANT. 383 

the closest scrutiny. Now that you have entered upon it in 
good earnest, the results need not be guessed at. The more 
you read and understand, the more you will be convinced of 
the truth of the religion of the Bible. 

Content not yourself with what one calls " the mere sur- 
face truths of revelation, which may be had for the picking 
up," but dig deep — the deeper you go the richer the veins of 
divine truth. Beware of discouragement. It is in the things 
of God as in those of nature : common things are acquired 
with little labor, but uncommon with extraordinary effort. 
Dust and common earth are obtained easy enough ; but men 
have to work hard and dig deep to reach the gold and sil- 
ver veins. Pebbles in great abundance may be found along 
the highway or on the shores of the ocean, but diamonds 
and pearls are a rarity. They are only reached by skilful and 
determined divers, who, at the hazard of their lives, struggle to 
the bottom of the deep sea, and grasp for the shells in which 
the beautiful gems are deposited. 

Beware, I repeat it, of that plague of most miners — dis- 
trust, unbelief, and discouragement — as in the case of him in 
a neighboring county in search of lead, who, after long and 
laborious effort, gave it up ; but others began where he left 
off, and, after digging a few yards, reached the lead. They 
made their fortunes, but he, poor man, was beggared ! Alas ! 
what illustrations of this in soul affairs have we seen during the 
last few years ? The grave-yards are full of such ; and many 
who are yet astir in the thronging population around us, who 
set out to obtain religion, sought it earnestly, got discouraged, 
gave it up. But others sought " the pearl of great price," and 
found. They are happy now, and rich in faith and good 



364 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

works ; while the others are in a state of spiritual pauperism. 
These are facts, sir ; therefore proceed, nor leave off until you 
possess in your own heart the salvation of the Gospel. 

Some I have known to be " drowned out," to use a miner's 
phrase hereabouts, the sorrows of repentance overflowing them, 
like treacherous water in a new mine, they adandoning the 
enterprise, and returning to their old sinful companions and 
habits. Noble exceptions to these I have found, however, who 
resolved to " try again," and find salvation or perish — that is, 
they preferred to die seeking mercy, if God so pleased, rather 
than give over the pursuit of it. Such never fail. The Spirit 
of God always shows himself mighty in the behalf of all such — 
" mighty to save.' 1 '' Walking over the hills, the other afternoon, 
I noticed a company of miners standing together at the mouth 
of a pit. It was " a new shaft," as they called it, which they 
had been sinking in hope of reaching coal. All appeared to be at 
a stand-still. " What ! " I said, " have you given up the search 
for coal ? " " No, sir," replied one of them, " but the water 
has drowned us out — driven us out, sir ! " " But, do you think 
there is coal down there ? " " Sure of it, sir ! If we keep 
on digging we are sure to reach the coal, which we shall, 
when we get our steam-pump going to rid us of the water." 
A few days more and they conquered the water, and, in a 
surprisingly short time they reached the coal, and were send- 
ing to the surface that which was of a fine quality, I believe. 
You perceive my meaning, my serious hearer ! Keep on 
searching the Scriptures, and praying for the manifestations of 
the Spirit to your soul, and you shall not search nor pray in 
vain. 

Avoid mere theorizing. Treat Christianity as you once did 



THE BIBLE ON THE ASCENDANT. 365 

every science you studied. Test its doctrines, demonstrate 
them by experience, repentance, faith in Christ, pardon, and 
regeneration, and the witness of the Spirit, and that sweet 
promise, " Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall 
be saved. 11 " And him that cometh unto me" says Jesus, " I 
will in no wise cast out 1 '' On no consideration whatsoever. One 
of the ancients, you may remember, said, " After all, experi- 
ence is the great mistress that ruleth all things." Speculation 
is not equal to experiment. 

Set your opinions firmly by the word of God. In order 
to this, ponder that command in Deut. xxxii. 46, " Set your 
hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, 
which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the 
words of this law. 11 Ay ! my friend, set your heart unto all 
the words of God ! There is just so much worth in what we 
do as there is heart in it ! A friend of mine, some years ago, - 
exclaimed in great simplicity, after reading a certain text, " O 
Lord, what a pity it is that thou shouldest see my thoughts 
so different from thine ! O my Lord, as one man sets his 
watch by the time-piece of another, or by the sun thou hast 
placed in the firmament of heaven, so, just so, do thou be 
pleased to set my thoughts by thine, through Jesus Christ. 
Amen!" (1 Sam. viii. 21.) The God to whom he prayed 
answered effectually the prayer, and none more happy now 
than he ! 

Allow me to commend to your notice Psalm cxix. 105 and 
Prov. vi. 23 ; all your opinions, works, and ways are to be illu- 
mined, corrected, and guided by the light of the word. Per- 
haps you may call to mind Cicero's advice to his son : " It will 
be of more or less service to you as you make it truly practi- 



366 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

cable in the sequel of your life." The same may be said of 

the Bible. 

******* 

I rejoice that "the Bible is on the ascendant" in your un- 
derstanding and conscience. Read on, reverently, prayerfully, 
and sincerely, and you shall find it more and more so. "It is 
only in nature that we meet with God under a vail, while, in 
the connection of revelation, all vails and coverings are re- 
moved," said an excellent divine in Germany. He made the 
remark chiefly with regard to the person and work of Christ. 
To study the Bible he advised seclusion, and heartfelt and re- 
peated aspirations to God for increasing light ; that the more 
we do so, the clearer we shall find the infallible traces of Jeho- 
vah, and other wonderful and glorious discoveries. Remember, 
as you proceed, that it is no part of the intention of God in 
the Bible to foster or encourage intellectual pride. If you 
find things there " hard to be understood" you may strengthen 
yourself by the thought that there is a divine design through- 
out the entire volume, to humble proud human reason, and to 
exalt and encourage faith. I believe, with Mr. Melvill, that " a 
Bible without difficulties would be a censer full of incense to 
man's reason;'''' — that it would then be "the greatest flatterer 
of reason, passing on it a compliment and eulogy which would 
infinitely outdo the most far-fetched of human panegyrics." I 
recall another remark of his, that " Scriptural difficulties de- 
stroy none who would not have been destroyed had no diffi- 
culties existed ! " If inclined to falter in the pursuit, shame 
yourself out of it by the recollection of the manner in which 
you set yourself about the study of certain abstruse sciences 
which you nobly mastered ! Pray for the forgiveness of your 



THE BIBLE ON THE ASCKNDANT. 367 

sins. Let your repentance be true and thorough. If properly 
broken down by penitential grief, you will find it no difficult 
thing to break with all your sins. When such a grief has 
opened your heart, it is only to make way for that living faith 
in the vicarious sufferings of Jesus Christ for you, by which you 
receive into that open heart of yours a feeling of pardon and 
adoption, and peace and love and divine joy. Then, and not 
till then, shall you realize with the Psalmist that the word of 
God is sweeter than honey, even the honey of the honey-comb I 
and the truth also of what Jesus said, " The words that I speak 
unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (John vi. 63.) The 
sentiments of a young Christian lady, the daughter of a titled 
nobleman, resident in one of the most brilliant cities of Eu- 
rope, occur to me, which may be of some use to you in the 
present juncture. Speaking of the Bible, she remarked, " I 
experience a pleasure in reading that book which I never felt 
before : it attracts and fixes me to an inconceivable degree ; 
and I speak sincerely, there, and only there, is the truth. 
When I compare the calm and the peace which the smallest, 
and most imperceptible grain of faith can give the soul — when 
I compare this with all that the world alone can give of joy 
and happiness, I feel that the least in the kingdom of heaven 
is a hundred times more blessed than the greatest and most ele- 
vated men of the world." One shortly after exclaimed, " There ! 
what a testimony for the Bible was that ! Not a voice from a con- 
vent, nor from an almshouse ; nor was it the language of one 
disappointed or disgusted, and who in a spirit of misanthropy 
turned to religion as a substitute for its former pleasures ; nor 
was it the experience of a bed-ridden cripple, making a vir- 
tue of necessity, and seeking consolation from religion because 



368 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

every other source of happiness was cut off. No ! but the 
experience of a young lady, in the very centre of all that could 
dazzle the mind or fascinate the imagination ; and in one of 
the gayest and most brilliant cities of Europe — one whom the 
world in all its most alluring forms is perpetually assailing, and 
seeking to captivate ! " That you have experienced something 
of this is a matter for congratulation ! 

* * • * Hs % * * 

The subject is not " disagreeable." Far from it. The Holy 
Spirit illuminated the mind of the prophet, or apostle, and 
excited his will to proclaim or write what he dictated, whether 
from within or without, by inward impressions or by angels 
or emblematic appearances, or face to face, as it were, and with 
audible voice, as to Moses. This is what we understand by 
the inspiration of the Scriptures. As to the manner of it, it 
came in such a way as not to leave room for a doubt in the 
person so»inspired. But as others were to be convinced, proof 
was necessary ; and by the most convincing proofs, which re- 
quired the mighty arm of God to exhibit, the truth of the 
revelation was established ; " God also bearing them witness, 
both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts 
of the Holy Ghost, according to his will.' 1 '' (Heb. ii. 4.) By such 
means God made way for each separate portion of his word, 
and gave it an enduring place in human belief. 

Admitting the existence of an omnipresent as well as an 
omniscient God, there seems no great difficulty in the way of 
admitting the other fact also, that he could as easily converse 
with the inward ear of his servants the prophets, as men can 
talk to the outward ear of persons in their employ ; and that 
the motion, or impression upon the brain, may have been as 



THE BIBLE ON THE ASCENDANT. 369 

intelligible in one case as the other. It only remains to be 
conceded that the person so spoken to had an undoubted 
evidence of the fact ; nor is it reasonable to suppose that God 
would withhold such an evidence from the person so favored. 

If we are capable of distinguishing the voice of a friend from 
other voices, is it unreasonable to suppose that the prophets of 
God had a similar faculty for distinguishing his voice ? or, if 
necessary, that he could create such a faculty for that very 
purpose ? 

Despise not a good commentary on the Scriptures. Men 
who have Jriven a lifetime to the study of God's word, know 
more than one who has but lately begun to study it. If a man 
resolve to read nothing but the Bible, to be consistent he 
shold hear nothing else ; then what becomes of the preached 
Gospel? As you are seeking advice, permit a hint: be not too 
much of a recluse. It is profitable to exchange thoughts with 
Christians — real Christians — such as are deeply experienced in 
the things of God, if you can find them. It sometimes re- 
quires a search ; and. they are found often where least expected 
— in the humble walks of life especially. I remember, when 
much younger in religion than I am now, meeting with the 
following in the diary of the devoted Brainard: "There are 
many with whom I can talk about religion ; but, alas ! I find 
few with whom I can talk religion itself. But, blessed be the 
Lord ! there are some that love to feed upon the kernel rather 
than the shell ! " A Christian friend had called upon him in 
his house in the wilderness, with whom he enjoyed a sweet 
season of conversation about the deep things of God. It was 
this that occasioned the remark just quoted. Oh ! sir, seek 

the company of such ! 

16* 



370 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

All is not right -with the person of whom you speak. I 
have known some intellectual eyes affected by what one called 
"a spiritual cataract" Then, sir, there are natural spectacles, 
and satanic spectacles, some of which caricature religion and de- 
ceive the unwary. You will be better able to detect these by 
and by. They have " Bank Detectors," you are aware, in most 
counting-rooms ; very useful things they are. Such is the 
Bible in matters of religion and experience. Many are suffer- 
ing in hell for the same opinions, and for cultivating the same 
senselessness of heart. They pressed on quite as defiantly and 
assuredly as he, till the flames of perdition effected what truth 
failed to accomplish — brought them to their senses. It is a sad 
thought, sir, but true nevertheless. 

Divine patience waits, and waits long in this world; for God 
has time enough in reserve to reckon with sinful men. But, 
as It is written, " There is an appointed time for man on the 
earth" so patience has an appointed time. Divine justice lin- 
gers not when that time expires. St. Peter speaks of some 
who " bring upon themselves swift destruction" by " damnable 
heresies" and " denying the Lord that bought them ; " and of 
some who in his day were exposed to an unlingering judg- 
ment, and an unslumbering damnation. (2 Peter ii. 1-3). While 
divine patience waits, and mercy pleads, justice stands back; 
but when these, weary with entreating, "retire behind the 
sword of justice red with ultimate and unrepenting wrath," then 
judgment lingers not, nor does damnation slumber. The Lord, 
this day, have mercy upon him, and upon all my impenitent 
hearers ! Satan takes heart when men with heart resist truth 
and weary the patience of God. 

But enough of this ; a more cheering theme is in reserve 



THE BIBLE ON THE ASCENDAJST. 371 

for this audience. Eternity will surely bring some insensible 
ones to their senses. They may live insensible, and die insen- 
sible, perhaps, but they cannot awake in eternity insensible. 
An irresistible hand will yet lay open all unpardoned sin before 
men. To be insensible with such a load of sin upon the soul, 
and with the threatenings of God volleying with such fearful sig- 
nificancy as of late, and with such ulcerated consciences as 
some of you have, argues a fearful state of soul. The Lord 
have mercy upon us all ! Once, in my travels, I saw a whole 
river disappear under ground, and, miles below, it reappeared. 
The surface of the country, however, gave no evidence that a 
river was rolling beneath, no more than the faces of some pres- 
ent, while conviction for sin, like that subterranean river, is 
rolling through their heart. I have known enough of people 
during and after a revival, and sufficiently of some present, to 
warrant me in making a very pointed application of the same. 
Hearken to the text: Heb. vii. 25. 



CHAPTER LI. 



LET US 



\jf$ ET us alone." Let one hearken who would be known 
by this nomenclature. But are you not aware this was 
ffi$ijt> the request of a devil, an " unclean spirit " which had 
possession of a man ? (Mark i. 23-26.) And does it convey no 
idea, think you, of what spirit you are of, and to what you are 
tending? " Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a 
devil,'''' said Jesus. Well, if worst comes to worst, if you will 
have it so, and it must be so, let it be so ; only let me drop 
this word in your ear : though you do not choose to embrace 
the religion of the New Testament, and wish to be entirely let 
alone upon that subject, yet, be it known unto you, the designs 
of Immanuel shall not miscarry, nor shall he want believers, 
n.or his heaven inhabitants. Multitudes which no man can 
number, so numerous are they, are this moment filling the 
immensity of Heaven with their descriptions of praise " Unto 
him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
blood, and hath made us Icings and priests unto God and his 
Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
Amen.' 1 '' (Rev. i. 5, 6.) Your request may be granted ; " to all 
intents and purposes " you may be let alane by the Spirit of 
God. But that death, devils, and the fames of perdition will 
let you alone, I shall not assure you ! 



"let us alone." 373 

2. There are, indeed, " changes " to be effected in the 
great future ; but widely different in various persons. Carnal 
insensibility will meet with an amazing change — I will not say 
for the better; not such as the idiot experiences the moment he 
enters eternity, when the mind, which was before lost and be- 
wildered, entangled in the mazes of a deranged brain, obtains 
the use of its reason and entire capabilities, and saved there, 
we hope, as children are saved, through the merits of Christ. 
I believe, with one, that the perversion of the faculties is at all 
times more shocking and disgraceful than the absence of them 
by nature. And you may remember that the old Grecian 
philosopher Antisthenes declared that he would rather be 
punished with madness than abandoned to vicious courses. An 
old Christian struck the same note when he remarked, better 
be a fool void of reason than a fool void of grace. And if the 
sentiment uttered by another, centuries ago, be true, that God 
will surely call us to a strict account both for the principal 
and interest of the talents he has intrusted to us — and who can 
doubt it after reading our Lord's parable of the talents f (Matt. 
xxv. 14-30) — then may such sentiments be accented with 
fearful force upon our consciences. Better, sir, lose the last 
gleam of intellect, and move among men a melancholy instance 
of the wreck and ruin of mental power, than live to be " let 
alone " in the abuse of God's mercies and the noble faculties 
with which he has iutrusted you. 

3. This does not look like letting you alone / But you will 
permit, I hope, a few parting words. Thorns are " insensible " 
things in themselves, yet they are capable of giving much pain 
to others. Some insensible sinners are much like thorns and 
briars in this respect. Nevertheless, when fire envelops these 



374 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

disorderlies in nature, they show considerable sensibility, and 
make a great crackling in the flames — like the thorns under a 
pot, of which Solomon speaks. God and such shiners must 
one day meet. The remark was " severe," I admit : " The stub- 
ble is more able to resist the flames, or a fly to conquer the 
world, than a daring, walking lump of clay to conquer God, or 
escape his vengeance." Was it more severe than those figures 
which God himself employs in Isaiah? "Who would set the 
briars and thorns against me in battle f I would go through 
them, I would burn them together. Woe unto him that striveth 
with his Master ! Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of 
the earth. 11 " Who has hardened himself against him and pros- 
pered f " saith Job. 

4. If you are so profoundly asleep to spiritual things as 
you would have us believe — though it seems something like 
a contradiction, seeing you are so fidgety under truth as to 
exclaim, " Let us alone " — it might, perhaps, disturb your slum- 
bers a little more if I whisper in your ear the observation of a 
shrewd divine, " If you are asleep, the devil is awake, and 
rocking your cradle ; and busy, too, keeping off ministers, con- 
science, anything that would awake you. None of your 
enemies are asleep. Asleep ! and in the midst of your foes ! 
Is the battle a sleeping time ? Is the race a sleeping time ? " 
Be assured of this, there is a terrible awakening before you ! 
11 The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. 11 As the Philistines 
rushed on Samson, shorn of his strength, so shall your old con- 
victions, by and by, and in tremendous force ! — convictions 
which you shall be as unable to conceal as to suppress — like 
the river Tigris, and other rivers, of which Sir Matthew Hale 
speaks, which sink into the ground, and keep a subterranean 



375 

course more miles than you number years, and breaking out 
again above-ground, a new river to some observers, but to 
others a continuation of the old. Well would it be for you, 
and some others among my hearers, if such might be the 
case in regard to old convictions of sin and danger, even before 
you leave this house of God, rather than on the death-bed, or 
in eternity. For then, alas ! they will, most likely, run on for 
ever and ever, parallel with your being and eternity. Should 
such be the case with any of you, you may remember where 
and when and by whom you were foretold of it. Precious sin- 
ner ! think, oh ! think, ere it is eternally too late ! My soul 
would wail over you in the language of a German hymn : 

" Sinner, oh ! why so thoughtless grown — 
Why in such dreadful haste to die ? 
Daring to leap to worlds unknown, 
Heedless against thy God to fly. 

" "Wilt thou despise eternal fate, 

Urged on by sin's fantastic dreams, 
Madly attempt th' infernal gate, 

And force thy passage to the flames ? 

" Stay, sinner, on the Gospel plains ! 
Behold the God of love unfold 
The wonders of his dying pains, 
Forever telling, yet untold 1 " 

******* 

As you value your eternal interests then, ponder what I am 
going to say ; but allow me the use of an illustration. Yonder 
is a rapid river, and within the bosom of that immense volume 
of waters is a large fish ; and it is floating or swimming (as you 



376 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

please) down with that powerful current. How little is that 
silly fish aware, surrounded as it is by the easy pressure of the 
softly gliding waters, with what a tremendous element it is 
encompassed ! How unconsciously it moves along with scarcely 
any perceptible effort; till, lo ! it comes for a moment above a 
terrific cataract ; over it goes, and the river comes down upon 
it in " thundering tons." To apply this : Sin is the sinner's 
element; and hell, is the centre of his gravity. It is in this 
deceptive and perilous element he is swimming ; nay, he need 
make no effort as to the active work of swimming ; even a 
dead fish may move with the stream. Let him set himself 
against the deep current of his corruptions, and endeavor to 
oppose the swift stream of infernal influence down which he is 
gliding ; then shall he know to his sorrow the force of those 
" fearful elements " which are bearing him downward to the 
gulf of eternal destruction. But, ah ! when he shall approach 
the falls of death, he will then feel, to his sorrow, the oppress- 
ive tribulation of that dangerous mass. And when he shall 
have been carried over the cataract, into the whirlpool of hell, 
and his past sins — the current in which he has been gliding so 
quietly for many years, and which has been as essential to his 
enjoyment as water to a fish — shall follow his terrified soul in 
thundering masses into the bottomless pit ; then, and not till 
then, shall he know how tremendous was that element, the 
power of which he never knew, because he never opposed any 
effectual resistance to its fatal tendencies, on his passage to 
eternity. 

You would do well to reconsider that notion regarding 
" small sins." Query : Is it possible that any sin can be small ? 
If you can prove you have a small soul to lose, and a small 



377 

God to sin against, and that there is any such thing as a small 
damnation, or a small hell ; the other may be proved easy 
enough. There are degrees of sin, we allow ; but if hell be 
the drift or tendency of every sin, alas ! there can be really no 
such thing in the universe as a small sin. Drops of rain are 
small things, but then the river is made up of drops, and rain- 
drops supply the river. A single sin appears small, bat that, 
and others joining it, may swell into a torrent that will drown 
the soul in destruction and perdition. 



CHAPTER LIL 

SEEING THINGS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. 

FEW more hints for " Let us alone." So ! so ! You 
tyb are not, after all, so insensible as you fancied yourself! 
"^~*<k — not so fast asleep as you imagined ? How could 
it be, seeing that both God and Satan have work for you ? He 
that is not doing somewhat for God, must be for Satan. Not 
to work out one's salvation, is to work out one's i^erdition. 
Pythagoras spoke well when he insisted that " ability and ne- 
cessity lie near each other." And so did the German, when 
he exclaimed, "our wants develop our faculties." The one 
originates or necessitates the other. Samuel Drew, the cele- 
brated mathematician, and" author of a fine work on the im- 
mortality of the soul, in giving account of his sinful life when 
a youth, in connection with his shoemaking life, observes, 
" When I was a young man, I was expert at follies, acute in 
trifles, and ingenious about nonsense." That was the use Satan 
found for his great talents ! 

2. In the eyes of the world, this waste of time and talent 
may seem but of little account, except so far as it may prevent 
the attainment of worldly advancement. But when we look 
into the Scriptures we find it a serious matter — that parable of 
the talents, for instance, to which we referred last night. (Matt, 
xxv. 14-30.) Principal and interest will be required, remem- 



SEEING THINGS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. 379 

ber ! Centuries ago, one exclaimed, in view of* this and other 
passages of God's word, "Better be a fool, void of reason, 
than be the devil's fool, void of grace." (Prov. xiv. 9.) Con- 
sult that ! Solomon there declares it is only a fool that makes 
a mock at sin ! A natural fool is not so sad a sight as that 
of one who has lost his reason — the melancholy spectacle of 
the wreck and ruin of high mental power, from which the last 
gleam of intellect has departed — like him of whom it was said : 

" His darkness came down with no soft'ning gradation, 
On the noon of his life it was instantly night ; 
'Twas the thunderbolt killing in swift desolation, 
In its greenness and glory, the pine of the height." 

Does the flight of time present a sadder scene than that? 
Yes, sadder by far it is to behold a noble intellect perverted ; 
and, though capable of doing much good in the world, that 
capability only manifests itself in using the most effectual means 
of serving the devil, and ruining itself and others. It is some 
comfort we can pity and pray for such, if we can do no more. 

3. " A hearer" who begins to see things in " a different 
light," and who, "by a close application to the study of the 
Bible," hopes to prevail against unbelief would do well to 
ponder that sentiment of the poet, Cowper : 

" But oars alone can ne'er prevail 
To reach the distant coast ; 
The breath of heaven must swell the sail, 
Or all the toil is lost." 

Pray while you read ; pray for the help of the Spirit. He 
must be to you what Philip the evangelist was to the man of 
Ethiopia : " Understandest thou what thou readest f " " How can 



3S0 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

7", except some' man should guide me?" (Acts viii. 26-40.) 
The guidance of the Spirit is what you need. The rays of the 
sun arc the best paraphrases upon the natural scenery around 
us ; and it is by the light of the Holy Spirit that we best un-. 
derstand the Scriptures. Conversing once with a good man in 
Switzerland, upon the necessity of the constant presence of 
God, he quoted that promise which God gave to Moses in the 
wilderness : "J/// presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee 
rest;" and added, "With greater probability might a traveller 
make his way through an unknown and trackless wilderness 
without a guide, or a mariner steer his course safely through 
the rocks and shoals of a tempestuous sea without star or com- 
pass, than any soul of man find his way through this world 
to heaven without the guiding hand of Jehovah." A while after 
this he himself entered into eternal rest, saving: 
" Thou. Christ, art all I want ; 
More than all in thee I find." 
But his remark is as applicable to him who would attempt 
to steer his way safely out from among the rocks and shoals of 
skepticism, tossed as he is upon a tempestuous sea of tempta- 
tion, without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

4. Perhaps you may be aware that a queen of England, 
Elizabeth, of famous memory, expressed a somewhat similar 
determination to your own, when her admiring subjects pre- 
sented her with a Bible as she was riding in state throuo-h 
Cheapside, just after her coronation. She received it, kissed it, 
laid it to her heart, and said that the sacred volume had ever 
been her chief delight, and that she had determined it should 
be the rule whereby she meant to frame her government ! 
Make it, my dear friend, you rule of self-government, and all 



SEEING THINGS IX A DIFFERENT LIGHT. 381 

shall be well with thee and thine ! That the queen profited by 
her attachment to the Bible, and that her delight in it did not 
decline, is evident from her remarks several years after : " I 
walk many times in the pleasant fields of the Holy Scriptures, 
where I pluck the goodlisome herbs of sentences by pruning, 
eat them by reading, digest them by musing, and lay them up 
at length in the high seat of memory by gathering them to- 
gether, so that, having tasted their sweetness, I may less per- 
ceive the bitterness of life." The Bible, sir, is the church's 
garden, and every Christian has a perfect inalienable right to 
regale himself therein — be he prince or peasant. It is filled 
with all manner of pleasant plants and healing herbs and fra- 
grant flowers, evergreens, and trees whose fruits never fail, and 
whose leaves never wither. The tree of knowledge is there, 
and also the tree of life, with no flaming sword to repel you 
from approaching it : 

" Here the fair tree of knowledge grows, 
And yields a free repast ; 
Sublimer sweets than nature knows 
Invite the longing taste. 
11 Here the Redeemer's welcome voice 
Spreads heavenly peace around ; 
And life, and everlasting joys, 
Attend the blissful sound. 
11 Here may the wretched sons of want 
Exaustless riches find ; 
Riches above what earth can grant, 
And lasting as the mind." 

5. The famous philosopher Boyle used to say he preferred 
a sprig of the tree of life in the Bible to a whole wood of bay. 
Locke commended the Bible, because it has God for its author, 



382 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error 
for its matter ; and because it contains more sublimity and 
beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer 
strains of poetry and eloquence than any other book in any 
language under heaven. Judge Hale, that ornament to his 
country, confessed that he had often observed if he neglected 
to honor God's word by reading a portion of it every morning, 
things went not well with him that day. Robert, king of Sici- 
ly said, " The holy books are dearer to me than my kingdom, 
and were I under any necessity of quitting one, it should be 
my diadem." Oh ! then, my dear sir ! read on, and while you 
admire the beauties, neglect not to practise the precepts of 
that sacred volume. 

" Read and revere the sacred page ; a page 
Which not the whole creation could produce, 
"Which not the conflagration shall destroy, 
In nature's ruins not one letter lost." 

6. It gives me pleasure, sir, to quote those eloquent senti- 
ments by a member of the Irish Bar, at a meeting of the Bible 
Society. He arose, and, after some preliminary remarks, went 
on to say that, for his part, he would abide by the precepts, 
admire the beauties, revere the mysteries, and, as far as in him 
lay, would practise the mandates of that sacred volume ! And 
should the ridicule of earth and the blasphemies of hell assail 
him, he would console himself in the contemplation of those 
blessed worthies who in the same holy cause had shone, had 
toiled, and had suffered ; that in the goodly fellowship of the 
saints, in the noble company of the martyrs, in the society of 
the great and the good of every nation, he was contented to 
remain in error : and if his sinfulness was not cleansed and his 



SEEING THINGS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. 383 

darkness illumined, at least his pretensionless submission might 
be excused ; that if he erred with the luminaries he had chosen 
for his guides, he confessed himself captivated by the loveliness 
of their aberrations, for if they err, it is in a heavenly region ; 
if they wander, it is in fields of light ; if they aspire, it is at all 
events a glorious daring ; and rather than sink with infidelity 
into the dust, he was contented to cheat himself with the 
Christian's visions of eternity ! If nothing but a delusion, it 
cheered him to think he was erring with the disciples of phi- 
losophy and virtue — with men who have drunk deep of the 
fountain of human knowledge, but who dissolved not the 
pearl of their salvation in the draught; that he erred with 
Bacon — the great Bacon — the great confidant of nature, 
fraught with all the learning of the past, and almost prescient 
of the future, yet too wise not to know his weakness, and too 
philosophic not to feel his ignorance ; that he erred with Mil- 
ton, rising as on angel's wing, and like the bird of morning 
soaring out of sight amid the music of his grateful piety ; he 
erred with Locke, whose pure philosophy taught him to adore 
its Source, and whose warm love of genuine liberty was never 
chilled into rebellion against its author ; he erred with Newton, 
whose star-like spirit shot athwart the darkness of the sphere, 
too soon to ascend to the home of his nativity ; if he erred, it 
was with Franklin, the patriot of the world, the playmate of 
the lightning, the philosopher of liberty, whose electric touch 
thrilled the hemisphere ; that with such men as these he was 
contented to remain in error, nor would he desert these errors 
for the drunken death-bed of Tom Paine, or the delirious war- 
whoop of his surviving friends, who would erect his altars on 
the ruins of society. 



384: AUKOWS FROM MY QUITEE. 

7. But, enough for the present. Let my hearers hearken 
to my text : " How long halt ye between two opinions f If the 
Lord be God, follow him ; but if Baal, then follow him. And the 
people answered him not a wordy (1 Kings xviii. 21.) Hav- 
ing stated the historical connection of the text in previous dis- 
courses, I hasten to lay down the following proposition : That 

IT IS UNREASONABLE, UNCOMFORTABLE, AND DANGEROUS TO 

HALT BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS IN MATTERS OF RELIGION IN THE 

CONCERNS OF THE SOUL AND ETERNITY." 

It is so especially, 1st. To a backslider. 2d. To an uncon- 
verted church-member, who has been halting, limping so long 
between the church and the world, that the disorder has be- 
come chronic, and who, to the present day, has has no cure 
for his wavering inconstancy — this spiritual palsy ! 3d. To the 
skeptic, who has long been wavering between Christianity and 
blank infidelity. 4th. To the deceptive sinner, who is not 
what he appears to be, indifferent to the whole matter ; 
awakened he is, though he tries to conceal it, and, by his 
high head in prayer time and careless air, would make believe 
he has no concern about the matter. Were he to sicken unto 
death in our midst, or meet with an accident going home, it 
would be otherwise with him ; or, were he honestly now to ex- 
press the feelings of his heart, his bearing w r ould, perhaps, be of 
a different character ! 5th. To the penitent sinner. To each one 
of these I proceed to say, and to prove, that to halt thus be- 
tween two opinions is unreasonable and uncomfortable and exceed- 
ingly dangerous* 

* Mr. Caughey has not furnished us with more than this outline of his 
sermon. The reader must accept it as a fragment. — Ed. 



CHAPTER LIII. 



THE IMPRECATION. 



" Led by the magnet o'er the tides, 

That bark her path explores, 

Sure as unerring instinct guides 

The bird to unseen shores : 
With wings that o'er the waves expand, 
She journeys to a viewless land." 

C#^X FTEN have I repeated these lines, and kindred ones 
)M^? m the same piece, when walking the ship's deck by 
■fc^^y night and by day, far out at sea, watching the 
magnet the while, and the ship's course, and the liberality of 
the breeze. Knowing our point of compass toward our port 
of destination, the fact of the vessel so steering, wind and steam, 
sails and machinery all working together harmoniously to fur- 
ther the object, was charming. To captain, mates, sailors, steers- 
man, and passengers, that point of compass to which it was 
desired the vessel should sail was the prevailing idea : blow high 
or low the winds, whether steering through light or through 
darkness, or whether through stress of weather keeping her 
away a point or two, the true point was always the one object 
of interest — to return to which, with a favoring breeze, all sail 
set, the delight of all on board ! 

Well, what the magnet is to the helmsman, a text of Scrip- 
17 



3S6 AEROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

ture is to me, frequently, when delivering an exhortation or 
preaching a sermon. Fixing upon a point of destination, my 
text, like the compass, indicates it ; by that I steer, though, 
through stress of weather, I may have to bear away a point or 
two, or sometimes change course entirely, for the purpose 
of picking up a poor sinner floating upon some raft of skepti- 
cism, or hope, or despair, or one like to perish in some foun- 
dering bark that had never been built of Gospel timber ; or to 
deliver a broadside against the squadron under satanic com- 
mand — bringing them to — board them, man them, and dis- 
patch the prizes, under the banner of Immanuel, for the port 
of glory ! — -or bear away on another point, signalizing one bear- 
ing our own flag, and yet another showing different, but true 
Christian colors ! — oh ! fine employment this ! — and on an- 
other tack, intercept a backslider who has lowered Christ's flag 
to Satan — assist him to hoist and unfurl his colors again! — 
and soon after, speak a poor fellow who has lost his spiritual 
reckoning, and, after, putting him in possession of his true lati- 
tude and longitude, we bear away again upon the point indi- 
cated in our magnet — glowing, may be, with those sentiments 
we have often hummed on deck, accompanied by the solemn 
bass of the rolling sea : 

" Yet not alone, for day and night 

Escort us o'er the deep ; 
And round our solitary flight 

The stars their vigils keep ; 
Above, beneath, are circling skies, 
And heaven around our pathway lies ! 

" Yet not alone, for round us glow 
The vital light and air ; 



THE IMPRECATION. 387 

And something that in whispers low- 
Tells to man's spirit there — 
Along our waste and dreary road, 
A present, all -pervading God ! " 

Oh ! but in many such deviations from my main point and 
wanderings away from my text, many a poor sinner has been 
rescued from something infinitely worse than a watery grave ! 
And sorely have I been criticised for such " eccentricities" as 
they are called. But all that sort of thing is of little con- 
sequence, if souls are saved. A ship's movements at sea 
may appear very eccentric, when viewed from the deck of a 
distant vessel, if her commander's motives are not understood, 
and the telescope is good for nothing, or the focal arrangement 
is mismanaged ! The captain, more intent upon saving life in 
jeopardy, than gaining credit for good seamanship, or making 
a quick voyage, cares but little for such criticisms ; neither do 
I, with all due respect. 

The truth is, brethren — and I need hardly tell you what I 
am persuaded you already know and believe — that my great 
object is to do good — immediate good, without any ambition 
to shine as an acute sermonizer. I never have had much repu- 
tation for that, and so have been happily relieved from anxiety 
to sustain pulpit character in that regard, such as is often dis- 
played in an ingenious method of elucidating some proposition 
or other, or more commonly in the firstly, secondly, and thirdly 
order. Not that I always discard these ; but dearer to ray 
heart it is to see a first, a second, the third, or the thirtieth sin- 
ner converted during a service, than to know some credit has 
been won by a strict adherence to system. If in straying 
somewhat out of the way, some poor sinner is arrested and 



388 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

brought into the way, it concerns me little that "good judges 
of preaching " have been disappointed, if the expectations of 
Christ and his angels are realized. I can bear to know that 
certain persons here below are displeased, if fully persuaded 
there has been joy in heaven over one repentant sinner. (Luke 
xv. 7.) 

Hearken ! Gal. vi. 14 : " But God forbid that I should glory, 
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christy And this is my 
magnet. Not in a material cross of gold, or silver, or brass, or 
iron, or wood,, or paper, such as the Roman Catholic glories in, 
did Paul glory, but in the doctrines of the cross ! Paul had much 
in which he might have gloried ; in his origin, " a Hebrew of 
the Hebrews 11 and " of the tribe of Benjamin" the most beloved 
son of the patriarch Jacob ; in moral character, " as touching 
the law blameless ; " in his learning also, and zeal, and sufferings 
for the cause of Christ. But in none of these would he glory. 
In the cross of Christ he did glory, that is, in the grand doc- 
trine of Christ crucified for the sins of the whole world, and 
the great salvation flowing therefrom — justification by faith, 
holiness, and eternal life ! 

Let "A sincere inquirer after truth 11 hearken. If my 
silence has given boldness to one of your old friends, he quite 
mistakes the cause. Had there been anything worth replying 
to, he might have heard from me. This may shock his vanity ; 
but if he reserved a copy, he might, by reading it over, be of 
my opinion: 

" Huge reams of folly — shreds of wit 
Compose the mingled mass of it ! " 

His opposition, and that of others, do not surprise me. 
Long before any of us were born, one truly said, " The laws of 



THE IMPRECATION. 389 

Christ give no quarter to vice, so vicious men will give no 
quarter to religion.'''' It is with human nature now as then. 
And were Horace, the old Latin poet, upon earth, he would 
not have cause to alter his opinion much : 

" Lawless and unrestrain'd, the human race 
Eushes through all the paths of daring wickedness." 

And what, after all, do their mighty lucubrations amount 
to ? unless to illustrate an old Latin motto I have met with, 
the English of which is, " Out of breath to no purpose, and 
very busy about nothing ! " Truly so, when they arrive at the 
conclusion, that the end of man is — nothing. It is a poor 
triumph, if they have succeeded in drawing some back to 
their old way of thinking, of whom the Church, and even the 
world, hoped better things. What one remarked a long while 
ago is fearfully applicable to some "professed converts " in our 
times ; that some entertain Christ out of compliment, thinking 
that he would please them, or not much contradict them ; but 
when they find that they have received a guest that will rule 
them, and not be ruled by them, then he is no longer their 
guest ; but as we did not glory in any of these, nor in those 
who yet walk in wisdom's ways, but "in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ,'' 1 we have nothing to be ashamed of. They were 
better persons than they were before, while they remained with 
us, outwardly at least, and, we strongly believe, inwardly also. 
" The dag shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, 
and the fire shall try every mail's ivork of what sort it is." If 
they were only but as wood, hay, stubble, when compared with 
the gold, silver, precious stones, the real children of Jesus 
Christ, the genuine seals to our ministry, why, then, the world 



390 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

has got its own back again. It is welcome to the hay, wood, 
stubble, for the Church of God is better without them. If 
otherwise, we can only weep, and pray that our all-conquering 
Jesus may yet take the prey out of the hand of the mighty. 
(1 Cor. iii. 10-15.) 

And now a few words to those of you new converts who 
yet hold fast your confidence in Christ — to you especially who 
once belonged to certain "clubs," and others of you to "de- 
bating societies." Oh ! beware. Satan may have an advan- 
tage over you there you little imagine. Return there, and the 
old spirit may reenter your soul again — the spirit of debate, 
ambition, pride, vanity, and evil tempers ; and, before you are 
aware, you are shorn of your strength, and once more weak and 
sinful as others. Once more I cry, beware ! You are yet too 
young to discuss questions which have perplexed wiser heads 
than yours ! Live, my young friends, upon that the nature of 
which you understand, that which will nourish and strengthen 
you. Nor will you, I hope, take it amiss, if I quote a strong 
reproof administered by a devoted minister to certain young 
professors : " If you will be gnawing bones when you should be 
sucking milk, and have not patience to stay till you are past 
childhood, no marvel if you find them hard, or if they stick in 
your throat, or break your teeth ! " Rather, as babes in Christ, 
" desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby " 
(1 Peter ii. 2) ; which I know you will, if you believe that the 
Lord is gracious. 

And now we proceed to the main question — and let the 
" inquirer after truth " weigh and compare a few observations 
with bis own previous impressions and conclusions — regarding 
" the Jewish people and their isolated position." The fact 



THE DJPEECATION. 391 

contains a powerful argument, not only for the truth of the 
Scriptures, but for the character of Christ. While we glory 
only in the cross of Christ, we cannot but be grateful to Divine 
Providence for the conservative nature of the fact. Examine 
the particulars connected with our Lord's crucifixion, and you 
will find that every utterance of the representatives of that 
people which procured sentence of condemnation against the 
Just One, recoiled upon themselves in fearful retributions, and 
in a coincidence of circumstances truly startling. " If thou let 
this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend." How soon after this 
did they lose the friendship of Caesar forever, and that very 
thing came upon themselves by which they sought to terrify 
the Roman judge and extort from him an unjust sentence ? 

Pilate said unto them, in irony, doubtless, " Behold your 
King ! " But they cried out, " Away with him, crucify him" 
But that generation passed not away until Jerusalem rang with 
the cry of the Romans : " Away with them ! away with them out 
of their country—away with their country, away with their sacri- 
fices, away with their laws, away with their temple, away with 
their capital, away with the nation ! " And away they were driven 
— " driven," as one observed, " driven out, like useless chaff, to 
the four winds of heaven, and condemned thenceforward ,to 
roam about in inhospitable regions, without a home, the scorn 
of all the world ! " Driven forth from nation to nation, cen- 
tury after century, even as predicted by one of their own pro- 
phets (Hosea iii. 4): " Without a king, and without a prince, 
and without a sacrifice, and without an image, without an 
Ephod, and without Teraphim ; " as if unworthy to breathe the 
air, or of the ground upon which they tread ; as if God would 
have all nations read on their foreheads the cause of their 



392 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

grievous banishment in the words, " His blood be on us, and on 
our children." More upon this in a few moments. 

Pilate, seeking to release Jesus, said to the Jews, " Shall I 
crucify your King ? " And what was their reply. " We have 
no king but Ccesar ! " How soon this was verified to the letter 
— when they had neither king, nor home, nor country ! 

Pilate, washing his hands before the multitude, saying, " / 
am innocent of the blood of this just person ; see ye to it" 
brought forth that horrible reply, " His blood be on us, and on 
our children!" Since the world began had never been 
uttered so dreadful an imprecation as this, nor while the world 
stands can its equal ever have an expression ! It was horrible ! 
Had this self-anathematizing speech been confined in its effects 
to those who gave it utterance, it could not affect us so much. 
But God understood it otherwise. Had a voice from heaven, 
loud as that voice heard by John in the Patmos isle, which was 
equal to seven thunders united in one, proclaimed its accept- 
ance and application to the whole Jewish nation for centuries 
to come, the evidence of the fact could not have been greater. 

However inexcusable it was in that weak and vacillating 
judge to pronounce sentence of death against one whom he 
had first pronounced innocent, or whatever may have been the 
lot of that judge afterward is not material to us ; but the ter- 
rible effects of this imprecation is too well known and incon- 
trovertible for infidels of the nineteenth century to deny or 
" laugh down." History has no example of any nation suffer- 
ing a series of such calamities as befel the Jewish nation soon 
after that event — the carnage witnessed in Jerusalem during 
the siege, when eleven hundred thousand people perished ; in- 
deed, shortly after the sacking of the city, the number in- 



/ 



THE EvIPEECATIOX. 393 

creased to over one million and a half ! Even crucifixion was 
resorted to in order to rid the earth of them ; and in such 
numbers, indeed, that so much wood at length could not be 
procured as would suffice the people condemned to the dread- 
ful death of the cross, even in Jerusalem, nor places sufficient 
for the crosses to stand ; and all this came upon them by the 
hands of those very Romans whose judge they had schooled to 
give sentence against the Prince of Peace. Jerusalem was 
trodden down by the Gentiles, and has never since then come 
into the possession of the Jews! Behold how the curse has 
pursued them and their posterity in that sentence of universal 
reprobation and banishment and dispersion over the earth ! 

Would that some of you who hear me this day had stood 
with me a few .months since under the Arch of Titus- in the 
Forum at Rome, where an impression might have been made 
upon your minds more enduring than the venerable monument 
so well adapted to convey it. Walking pensively one day with 
some friends in the direction of the Coloseum, along the Via 
Sacra, at the foot of Mount Palatine, we paused beneath an 
ancient arch .of triumph : to the left we beheld in sculpture a 
Roman hero in his triumphal car, and captives with features un- 
mistakably Jewish ; and on the right, the sculptured spoils of 
the captives. Stepping out in front of the arch, the inscription 
there told the story : 

SENATUS 
POPULUSQUE 
DIVO TITO DIVI VESPASIANI F 
VESPASIANO AUGUSTO. 

" The Senate and People of Rome, to the Divine Titus, son 

of the Divine Vespasian ; and to Vespasian the Emperor" 

17* 



394 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Poor Jerusalem ! here is the monument which celebrated 
thy overthrow and total destruction, as predicted by thy Mes- 
siah, when, from one of thy guardian hills, he looked upon thee 
and wept, and with words, broken by sobs, he bewailed thy 
approaching desolation ! Unhappy Jews ! look upon this arch, 
and remember the terrible imprecation : " His blood be upon 
us and our children.'''' I marvel not that the " Jew's path " 
runs near this arch, but not underneath it. Many a sigh has 
been breathed by the outcasts of Israel in passing here, they 
of " the wandering foot and weary breast." Oh ! but it seems as 
if every stone in that monument, laid there so soon after the 
terrible event, is mournfully saying : 

" Oh ! weep for those who wept by Babel's stream, 
"Whose shrines are desolate, whose land a dream ! 
"Weep for the liarp of Judah's broken shell, 
Mourn, where God hath dwelt, the godless dwelL 

" Oh ! where shall Israel lave her bleeding feet ! 
And where shall Zion's songs again seem sweet ? 
And Judah's melody once more rejoice 
The hearts that leapt before the heavenly voice. 

" Tribes of the wandering foot, and weary breast, 
Where shall ye flee away, and be at rest ? 
The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave, 
Mankind his country, Israel but the grave ! " 

We returned beneath the arch, and examined the sculp- 
ture with mournful interest; facsimiles of the spoils brought 
away from the Temple at Jerusalem, on the day of its utter 
destruction, carried away by the command of Titus, as trophies 
to grace his triumphal entry into Rome ; the sacred utensils 
recorded in Exodus xxv., the golden table of the show-bread, the 



THE IMPRECATION. 395 

seven-branched golden candlestick, the ark of the covenant, the 
famous trumphets, etc., etc., sculptured in basso relievo ; and a 
melancholy procession besides of captives, with profiles, as be-* 
fore observed, unmistakably Jewish — portraits, most likely, of 
some of those who graced the triumph of Titus, and probably 
of those who cried " Away with him, crucify him" and were 
the spectators of his death on Calvary. Doubtless they se- 
lected the most 'noble and influential among the captives to 
stand before the sculptor, while he immortalized in marble 
their degradation and misery ; after which they were dispatched 
to their work among the stones and mortar of the rising am- 
phitheatre, yonder Coloseum, whose giant carcass is spread out 
before us at the extremity of the Forum. 

Behold the goodness and severity of God ! his severity to 
the Jews, his once chosen people ; his strange and mysterious 
providence in the instruments of their punishment, and in the 
fulfilment of the predictions of the Son of God ! and after the 
destruction of the holy city, in delivering over the spoils of the 
Temple, and even the book of the law, to grace the triumph of 
an idolatrous people in their capital, and allowing them to be 
deposited in a temple consecrated to the goddess of peace ! 
and, yet, should so ordain that these should be the first people 
on the earth to receive the Gospel of Christ ! 

Oh ! who among you could have stood unmoved before this 
most interesting of all monumental proofs of the fulfilment of 
an awful Scriptural prediction !— the result, too, of a horri- 
ble, voluntary imprecation, " His blood be on us and on our 
children " — especially if accompanied by such thrilling consid- 
erations as the following — oh ! that in repeating them to you 
some of you may be led through divine influence to recon- 



396 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

sider your views of the atonement, and the felt obligations to 
repentance, faith, gratitude, and obedience, under which the 
doctrines of the cross of Christ should lay every one of us — 
that " His blood be on us and on our children " may have a 
wider and more terrible range than the destruction of a capi- 
tal, the overthrow of a nation, and the banishment of its people. 
In those fearful words, remarked a French divine, may we 
not discover the foundation of the terrible mystery of that 
eternal punishment with which we are threatened in the Scrip- 
tures ? For, is not the reason, as one of our own divines has 
observed, found in the blood of Christ, rather in the profana- 
tion of it every day ? This blood, he continued, is of infinite 
dignity, and therefore can only be avenged by an infinite pun- 
ishment ; this blood, if we destroy ourselves, will cry eternally 
against us at the tribunal of God ; it will eternally excite the 
wrath of God against us. This blood, falling upon lost souls, 
will fix a stain upon them that shall never be effaced ; torments 
must consequently never have an end. A reprobate in hell 
will always appear in the eyes of God stained with that blood 
which he has so basely treated ; God will always abhor him ; 
this will make hell. 

Nor can I withhold the remarks of another French divine. 
He said he could not tell what impression the incarnation and 
sufferings of Christ made upon his brethren ; but for his own 
part, he would ingenuously own that could anything render 
Christianity doubtful to him, what it affirms of this mystery 
would do so ; and that he had need of all his faith, and of all 
the authority of Him who speaks in Scripture, to persuade him 
that God would condescend to such a humiliation as this ; that 
if amidst the darkness that conceals this mystery, he could 



THE IMPRECATION. 397 

discern a glimmering that reduced it in a sort to his capacity, 
it arose from the sentence of eternal punishment, which God 
has threatened to inflict upon all who finally reject this great 
sacrifice ; — having allowed the obligations under which the in- 
carnation lays mankind, he continued, everlasting punishment 
has nothing in it contrary to divine justice ; no ! — the burning 
lake with its smoke, eternity with its abyss, devils with their 
rage, and hell with its horrors, seemed to him not at all too rig- 
orous for the punishment of men who have trodden under foot 
the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant an un- 
holy thing, and crucified him afresh, after doing despite to the 
Spirit of Grace. 

But forget not, remarked another, that some poet has 
spoken to this effect, that to man the bleeding cross has prom- 
ised all, has sworn eternal grace, that He who offered up his life 
there can never deny grace ! Ay ! to the penitent, believing 
sinner, rejoined another; but to the impenitent it is one of the 
most ominous and fearful pledges of coming wrath which the 
surface of Scripture presents. Damascen compared well when 
he likened the cross of Christ to a golden keg which opens 
paradise for us ; but if unaccepted by the ungodly, it becomes 
an iron keg to open hell ! For, eternity only can show how a 
Saviour freely offered, and deliberately rejected, affects a man's 
condition in the eternal world ! 

The cross of Christ ! O my impenitent hearer ! The cross 
of Christ ! and let it not detract from its glory, for it really 
does throw a solemn grandeur over it ; — while it is, indeed, the 
golden sceptre held out to you this day from heaven, by which 
you may obtain a greater mercy than King Ahasuerus ever in- 
tended when he stretched out that symbol of life or death, the 



398 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

golden sceptre, to Queen Esther; grace, mercy, forgiveness, 
holiness, eternal life. Yet, if you spurn this cross — if you 
neglect that offering to eternal justice, once made upon the 
cross, and the offers of mercy which the doctrines of the cross 
thus bring to you, that cross — what shall I say to move you ? — 
it will be transmuted into that sword of steel, of which Pol- 
lok speaks, whose wrath burns fearfully behind the cursed, as 
they are driven away from God to Tophet ! — and with this 
motto on that sword, in letters of flame : 



1 Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not. 



The cross is, to all who obey Him, as the pillar of cloud that 
went before the obedient Israelites through the Red Sea, and 
on through the wilderness into Canaan. But, alas ! if not fol- 
lowed, if neglected, it is at last transformed into the darkest 
thunder-cloud of hell, its thunders uttering words which every 
guilty conscience echoes back, barring all excuse, as Pollok 
wisely says again, and throwing the weight of every man's per- 
dition on himself, directly home : 

"Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not." 

Oh ! well might the apostle say, " God forbid that I should 
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the 
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." By the 
" cross," as I remarked in the beginning, he meant the doc- 
trines of the cross — justification, and present and eternal salva- 
tion, through the alone merits of Him who died upon the 
cross for the sins of the world. It is by the cross, thus under- 
stood, and not as the Roman Catholics understand it, that the 
Lord comforts Zion, turns the wilderness into an Eden (to use 



THE IMPRECATION. 399 

the figures of the prophet Isaiah), and the desert into the gar- 
den of the Lord — making penitent hearts rejoice with joy and 
gladness, and filling Zion with thanksgiving, and the voice of 
melody. (Isa. liii. 3.) The cross of Christ ! Oh ! but it is a harp 
of sweeter and more influential music amid a congregation of 
despairing, but penitent sinners, distracted and torn by the 
foulest fiends of hell — than the melody of that harp by which 
David charmed away the evil spirit which troubled the soul of 
Saul, king of Israel ! For, if 

" Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," 

much more the music of the cross ! and many a savage-like 
sinner have I seen subdued by it ; ay, and a despair, that tore 
the soul like an unrelenting savage, soothed and entirely exor- 
cised by it ! 

But alas ! poor sinner ! if that cross be despised here, it 
becomes the theme to which the harps of hell are strung ; and, 
to use another idea of Pollok — for my mind is usually affected 
by what I happen to read through the day, and I have been 
reading Pollok's " Course of Time" and a wonderful poem it 
is — to use another idea of Pollok, without aspiring to the 
exact measure of his lines, it is the theme to which the harps 
of grief are strung ; and the chorus of the damned, the rocks 
of hell repeat it evermore, loud echoing through the caverns 
of despair, and poured in thunder on the ear of woe ! Per- 
haps all this is implied in those words — to me terrible words — 
where John closes the description of hell's punishment with — 
" In the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the 
Lamb ; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever 
and ever." (Rev. xvi. 9-11). Ah! poor sinner! you have a 



400 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

terrible prospect before you ! " Flee from the wrath to come" 
Let your flight into the arras of Christ be immediate ; now is 
the day of salvation, and the day of perdition is very near all 
the impenitent sinners of our times. 

Again, my brethreu, I urge your attention to the cross of 
Christ ; and, although I believe heartily with some writer — I 
forget who — that the cross is the great pillar of human hope, 
bearing the inscription, " God so loved the world that he gave 
his only Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish 
but have everlasting life" and that upon this monument of 
love the Almighty has chosen to rest his claim to the eternal 
gratitude of the world ! — yes, I do believe all this — but, he 
that hath an ear, let him hear — I believe, also, that if that claim 
be refused in this world, that cross shall be seen by the damned, 
looming through the smoke and flames of hell, as the most en- 
during of all monuments, eternally commemorating the justice 
of their punishment. Is it not written, " Christ hath suffered 
for our sins, the just for the unjust to, bring us to God " ? (1 Pet. 
iii. 18.) But if we allow unbelief, ingratitude, impenitency — 
our sins — to bring us to hell, we must there suffer for our 
own sins, and that witnout remedy. But, ah ! sirs, to recollect 
there that Christ did once suffer upon earth for those very 
sins for which we are suffering, will double the sufferings, and 
make a hell of Hell indeed ! 

No apology do I feel necessary to make this audience for 
presenting the cross of Christ for your acceptance, with such a 
dread alternative. The doctrine that there was no other al- 
ternative than that man must perish in an eternal hell, or Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God, die in his stead, has always in my view 
thrown a solemn grandeur as well as terrible significance over 



THE IMPRECATION. 401 

the incarnation and suffering of Christ. Discard that awful 
fact from the story of the cross, and, I am free to confess, a 
similar doubtfulness to that of the French divine already alluded 
to, would most certainly assail me; I speak with reverence, 
that, not without a struggle, if thus embarrassed, could I re- 
ceive that sentiment of the apostle, " Christ the power of God 
and the wisdom of GodP Whereas, in view of the endless 
wretchedness from which the death of Christ saves men, the 
whole plan of salvation wins the entire confidence and admira- 
tion of my reason. This sentiment may appear but of little 
importance to some superficial minds in this audience ; but to 
me personally, and to my zeal in the cause of Christ, it is of 
the highest importance. It is that, indeed, to which the other 
alternative is so fearfully linked, that the non-acceptance of the 
doctrines of the cross involves an incarceration in that very 
hell, to rescue us from which the Son of God died. 

" Yes, thou didst die for me, Son of God I 

By thee the throbbing flesh of man was worn ; 
Thy naked feet the paths of sorrow trod, 
Thou that wert wont to stand 
Alone on God's right haDd, 
Before the ages were, the eternal, eldest born. 

"Lowbow'd thy head convulsed, and droop'd in death, 
Thy voice sent forth a sad and wailing cry ; 
Slow struggled from thy breast the parting breath, 
And every limb was wrung with agony- 
That head whose veilless blaze 
Filled angels with amaze, 
When at that voice sprang forth the rolling worlds on high." 

How it rejoices my heart, dear penitent sinner! to offer 



402 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

you salvation in that name ! — mercy through his atoning 
blood ; forgiveness through the faith of him ; justification 
by faith, and peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
God can be just and the justifier of those who believe in 
him. All other subjects of human glory are eclipsed by this — 
sink into insignificance in the presence of this ! " God for- 
bid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ^ 

Nor can I close without repeating the sentiments of an elo- 
quent German preacher, which have been passing and repassing 
before my imagination, like some beautiful painting, or charm- 
ing landscape, which frequently so daguerreotypes itself upon 
my imagination, that it passes before me, years afterward, like 
a moving panorama! Behold the cross! he exclaimed, be- 
hold the purple stream of the blood as it falls from the wounds 
of the crucified Jesus, and bedews the place of torture, and 
the sinful crowd that surrounds it. That blood yet falls upon 
the spiritual deserts of our world, and they blossom as the 
rose. We sprinkle it by faith upon the door-posts of our 
hearts, and are secure against destroyers and avenging angels. 
This dew of the atoning blood falls on the ice of the north 
pole, and the accumulated frozen mass of ages thaws beneath 
it. It streams down on the torrid zone, and the air becomes 
cool and pleasant. Where this rain falls, the gardens of God 
spring up, lilies bloom, and w r hat was black becomes white in 
the purifying stream, and what was polluted becomes pure as 
the light of the sun ! That which dew and rain is to nature, 
which without them would soon become a barren waste, the 
crimson shower which we see falling from the cross is to hu- 
man minds. There is no possibility of flourishing without it, 



THE IMPRECATION. 403 

no growth nor verdure, but everywhere desolation, barrenness, 
and death! 

He described the mysterious cross as a rock against which 
the very waves of the curse break — as a lightning conductor, 
by which the destroying fluid descends, which would have 
otherwise crushed the world. Jesus, who mercifully engaged 
to direct the thunderbolt against himself, does so while hang- 
ing yonder in profound darkness upon the cross. There he is, 
as the connecting link between heaven and earth ; his bleeding 
arms extended wide, stretched out to every sinner ; hands 
pointed to the east and west, indicating the gathering in of 
the world of man to his fold ; the cross is directed to the sky, 
as the place of the final triumph of his work in redemption ; 
and its foot fixed in the earth, like a tree, from whose won- 
drous branches we gather the fruit of an eternal reconciliation 
to God the Father ! 

The cross, he continued, the mysterious, the spiritual cross, 
is the standard of the new covenant, and when it is understood, 
it spreads terror around it, no less than delight, and produces 
lamentation no less than joy and rejoicing. It stands to-day, 
and it will stand forever, and no more fears those who would 
overturn it than the staff of Moses feared when those of the 
magicians hissed around it. Display it where we will, miracu- 
lous effects attend it. We carry it through the nations, and, 
without a blow of the sword, conquer one country after an- 
other, and one fortress after another. Look upon our mission- 
ary fields, how verdant they become, and a spring-time of the 
Spirit spreads itself over the heathen deserts. Hark how the 
harps of peace resound from the isles of the sea ! Behold how, 
between the icebergs of the north, the hearts begin to glow with 



404: ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

the fire of divine love ! These changes, these resurrection 
wonders are wrought by the cross ! This shaking in the val- 
ley of dry bones comes by the lifting up of the cross. We 
carry it through the land, and beneath its shade the soul be- 
comes verdant, and the dead revive ! Stones melt in its vicin- 
ity, rocks rend before it, and waters, long stagnant, again ripple, 
clear and pure, as if some healing angel had descended into 
them ! Thus spake the eloquent Krummacher in the capital 
of Prussia ! Thus speaks my heart, and almost every heart in 
this audience ; for were you to give expression to your emo- 
tions, as if with one voice you would exclaim, " God forbid 
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
Amen. 




CHAPTER LIV. 



THE ART OF PRINTING AND THE BIBLE. 



jHE first printed book appeared, I believe, in 1457, 
about thirty-five years before the discovery of Amer- 
ica. The Book of Psalms, some say, was the book. 
The first Bible, with a date, was printed by John Faust, in 
1460. The wish of Job, u O that my words were now written! 
that they were printed in a book." (Job xix. 23.) If you 
look at the word "printed " in your Hebrew Bible, you will 
find it ^pn^n weyuchakoo, " And they were caused to be 
described, traced out, recorded, or registered in a book" — any 
one of these terms will express Job's meaning, and not print- 
ing in our sense of the term. The art of printing had no ex- 
istence in Job's time, nor for nearly two thousand years after. 
Writing was done in ancient times on the leaves of the papy- 
rus, the Egyptian flag, on linen cloth, and on thin lamina? of dif- 
ferent substances, and by engraving on large stones and rocks. 
Job, you may read in the next verse, wishes for " an iron pen " 
— a pen with a steel point, as some suppose ; others, a chisel. 

2. It was well, doubtless, that the art of printing was so 
long unknown, that the world might be the better prepared for 
it ; at least during those fifteen or sixteen centuries required for 
the completion of the books of the Old and New Testaments. 
For we are not sure that even the inspired writers would have 



406 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

been entirely free from a temptation to verbosity or prolixity, 
if their writings could have been issued as speedily and cheap- 
ly and as profitably as now. Nor are we certain, had the art 
been discovered a thousand years before it was, that the sacred 
books would not have been overwhelmed, swept away, and bu- 
ried under the consequent inundation of books, before the 
world had time to perceive the value of the sacred records. 

3. Perhaps the destruction of Ptolemy's Brucian library 
by fire, with its four hundred thousand volumes, may hereafter 
be traceable to a similar providential design, as also the de- 
struction of Ptolemy's Serapion library by the same element, 
under the hand of Saracens, by the command of Omar, the 
conqueror, who said, " The Koran is sufficient, for it compre- 
hends all necessary truths — therefore the library is unnecessary ; 
but if it contain any particulars contrary to the Koran, it 
should and must be destroyed." Thus was its doom sealed, 
and the library and its three hundred thousand volumes were 
given to the flames. Eternity may possibly reveal that what 
was designed for the benefit of the Koran may have been over- 
ruled for the advantage of the Bible. Providence sometimes 
works after this manner. " I hate the books I have written, 
lest they prevent the reading of the Bible," said a great 
author. " Away with our books," exclaimed another, " that 
here may be more room for the Bible." 

4. Copyright was as much unknown, perhaps, as the art of 
printing, as book after book of the sacred volume appeared 
among men; nor were the writers inspired by the hope of 
immense profits from the sale of a large edition, as among us. 
Thus, as one observes, we have, humanly speaking, a clue to 
the fact that the sacred penmen scarcely ever said all that 



. . THE ART OF PRINTING AND THE BIBLE. i07 

might have been said — often not so much as now seems to us 
necessary, frequently leaving the supply of a word to the 
reader, or to draw his own inferences or conclusions. Besides, 
sir, the advantage of a book reasonable in size was of great 
advantage to the world financially — to those early ages espe- 
cially — before the facilities of the press were known. Mark 
here also the wisdom of Divine Providence ! for, had the size 
of the Bible been in proportion to the number and importance 
of its themes, it would have been put quite out of the reach of 
the masses of society, who are usually too poor to purchase an 
expensive work — to say nothing of their unwillingness to lay 
out a large sum upon a book for which naturally they can 
have but little affection, and too expensive by far for philan- 
thropists to give away. Nor could Bible societies have done 
much in this way. Thus the Bible would have been confined 
to a few great libraries, as it was, indeed, in the time of Luther, 
in the university of Erfurth, and another copy which he found 
in the convent of St. Augustine, but chained to a desk. Frag- 
ments of the Bible, might have been distributed among the 
people, but at the peril of mutilations, interpolations, and error. 
In the thirteenth century, one hundred and fifty years before 
the art of printing was discovered in Holland, a neatly written 
Bible cost in England £30, or one hundred and fifty dollars, 
which, at that age, would have cost a poor laboring man 
thirteen years' toil to have procured. The building of a couple 
of arches in the great London Bridge at the same period cost 
five pounds sterling less than the purchase of a Bible. Had that 
book then been as large as you propose, how enormous the 
expense ! Now that the press is at our command, the present 
age might contrive to overcome the difficulty ; but, pity on 



408 ARROWS FROM MT QUIVER. 

the past ! Building of bridges costs more in our day and the 
Bible less ! I thank God for that ! 



Thanks for your kind communication ! It was Augustine 
that said, " Away with our books, that room may be made for 
the book of God!" — a sentiment that required a "note of 
comment," Luther wished that all his books were burned, fear- 
ing that they had tempted men to read them in preference to the 
Holy Scriptures — a doubtful wish ; for his writings had a re- 
markable effect in preparing the way for the Reformation, and 
carrying it forward ; besides, by them, the people were led to 
search the Scriptures whether these things were so. Extremes 
are injurious. Your notion, if carried out, would put an end 
to preaching, and should lead you to fling away this paper 
upon which I traced these thoughts. I advise to no such ex- 
tremes. . Let the Bible have the first place in your affections 
and confidence, and a due proportion of your time. There is 
to be gained by reading other books a better knowledge of 
the meaning of Scripture, and the adaptation of the Bible to 
the wants of the world. Even the secular papers are not with- 
out their use; they illustrate the Bible, and show you how 
God is governing the world ! They are the heralds of Divine 
Providence ; therefore do not despise them ! 

The abandonment of all other books for the Bible might 
be to you a great loss in one respect : should you happen to 
misunderstand or misapply a passage, you might, perchance, 
be abandoned to irreclaimable bigotry, or to some pernicious 
error. In more senses than one, I have thought, we may ex- 
claim with an old author, " Deliver me from a man of one 



THE ART OF PRINTING AND THE BIBLE. 409 

book." Such are to be found, and, if in error — for a man 
may be in error even with the Bible in his hand — they are 
most difficult cases to deal with. Luther himself, when only 
partially delivered from the superstitions of Popery, gave 
Zuinglius and the other reformers immense trouble in the 
council, with his finger on " This is my body, 11 " This is my 
blood 11 insisting absolutely upon the literal meaning ! The 
reflection that other minds of superior advantages than your 
own, and possessing a more extensive acquaintance with the 
Scriptures, may lessen the force of your impression. 

Certain it is, those books should be avoided that would un- 
fit your mind for reading the Bible with pleasure, or render 
the precious volume insipid or distasteful to you, as in the case 
of that person whose experience in such matters is before me. 
He says that on entering the parlor of a friend he approached 
a table upon which lay several books. To while away the 
time he took up a volume, one of Sir Walter Scott's novels, 
and began turning over its leaves carelessly. Fixing upon a 
page, his mind became interested and feelings excited, which 
increased every moment, alternately swayed with merriment or 
anxiety and fear. The sayings and doings of the characters 
depicted there so possessed him, that he laughed with those 
who laughed, and wept with those who wept. Finally, as the 
plot began to thicken, his emotions deepened, until the beating 
of his heart shook the book in his hand. In an agony of sus- 
pense, to use his own words, his mind, with the avidity of a 
famished tiger, seized upon each successive thought, his eye 
travelling page after page over, and as the writer gave the 
finishing stroke to his story, his feelings and tears, which had 
been pent up during the reading, broke loose. Resigning him- 



410 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

self to his emotions, and indulging in some gilded creations of 
his own imagination, suggested by the tale he had read, when 
leaning with his arm on the table, his eye followed his hand, 
which without any design rested upon a hitherto unnoticed 
Bible. "Suddenly," says he, U I started as if an adder had 
stung me, or as if a dagger had pierced my heart ! — an adder 
had indeed stung me, but that adder was the thought, How 
indifferently do I usually read this book ! Here I have been 
reading with interest intense, and weeping over scenes and 
events which I know to be false and unimportant, while often 
with a cold heart and a tearless eye I read in this book the 
account of facts that involve, not only my own, but the eternal 
destiny of the whole world — facts of so much moment, that 
the angels themselves once hushed their shouts to examine, and 
gazed upon with voiceless amazement ; facts of so dreadful an 
import, that the dark brow of demons gathered, and still 
gather a darker shade of malignity as they look upon them 
from the dark dungeons of their eternal prison-house ! I felt 
guilty— guilty, not so much from the circumstance of reading 
the tale and being carried away by its exciting scenes, as by 
the conviction of the cold indifference with which I had read 
that precious volume." 



CHAPTER LV. 



TO THE SAME THE BIBLE. 




all means ! " Search the Scriptures." It is the com- 
mand of Jesus, and the reward is sure. That learned 
man found it so, who declared there were really but two 
new books in the world, the Bible and Euclid. By habitu- 
ating yourself to its study, and making it the grand test of all 
books you may think proper to peruse, you will preserve your- 
self from much evil and imposition. Besides, whatever of praise- 
worthy sentiment you may happen to find in other books, it 
will strengthen your faith to trace it to your Bible. It was 
thus the great and good Mr. Jay learned to discern that the 
Bible is the fountain, other books only the streams — and 
streams are seldom entirely free from something of the quality 
of those soils through which they flow. 

2. The Bible has had a wonderful history. If the study of 
history shall form a part of our employments in heaven, as 
some think, the history of the Bible will be included, and will 
be interesting beyond imagination ! Perhaps that incident on 
the coast of Scotland may open for us hereafter a fine theme 
of heavenly contemplation. It was a night of storm, and ter- 
rible, and the morning presented the elements in terrific com- 
motion along the perilous coast, appalling the stoutest heart. 



412 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

Those who had read Virgil's description, might well repeat it 
behind the shelter of a rock : 

" The Father of the gods his glory shrouds 
Involved in tempest and a night of clouds ; 
And from the middle darkness flashing out 
By fits he deals the fiery bolts about ; 
Earth feels the motion of her angry God, 
Her entrails tremble, and her mountains nod, 
And flying beasts in forests seek abode ; 
Deep horror seizes every human breast, 
Their pride is humbled, and their fears confess'd; 
"While he from high his rolling thunder throws, 
And fires the mountains with repeated blows ; 
The rocks are from their old foundations rent, 
The winds redouble and the rains augment ; 
The waves on heaps are dash'd against the shore, 
And now the woods, and now the billows roar." 

Providence seemed to unloose its grasp of the mighty winds, to 
perform their evil will with fury — when a great ship, in melan- 
choly outline, loomed up, swinging in the arms of raging winds 
and waves — disabled, unmanagable, and hurled headlong to- 
ward the breakers. Had you been on board that ship you 
might have seen one— a sailor — carefully girdling his waist with 
that in which appeared a somewhat bulky parcel, like the re- 
turning Californian and His gold-belt. But who cared for him, 
or what he did, while death stared in the face all on board ! 
The decisive moment arrived, when that ship was in the giant 
arms of the breakers. The groaning vessel surrendered to her 
fate, and went to pieces. Sailor after sailor perished — all on 
board, in fact, except one — and he, nearly naked, half-drowned, 
entangled midst ropes and drifting spars, was cast on shore, and 



TO THE SAME THE BIBLE. 413 

lay stretched on the sands. Tearful eyes were there, and will- 
ing hands, to administer reviving cordials, and not without 
success ! A small parcel tied round his loins in a folded hand- 
kerchief, was noticed and untied. It contained a Bible, the 
gift of a father, on the blank leaf of which was a prayer for 
the welfare of his sailor-boy ; and that Bible bore marks of 
having been well read, and often, and with tears. 

The Bible, spread before many an ancient preacher, has 
witnessed the effects of the Gospel preached to listening thou- 
sands, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ! It has 
been in scenes of famine, pestilence, earthquake, fire and 
sword— on the field of blood, midst " the crash and agony of 
mortal fray," midst hail of iron and rain of blood ; midst a 
storm of bullets hurled against the heavenly face of man, itself 
pierced, as well as dying thousands ; as in the case of that 
young soldier, upon whose person was a Bible : the ball pene- 
trated as far as Eccles. xi. 9, and there stopped. He had 
been a profligate up till then ; but seeing this, he repented, and 
found mercy, and afterward declared with deep emotion that 
the Bible had been the salvation of his body as well as his 
soul ! It was the rule of the army that each soldier should 
carry a Bible into the field. Another soldier, in another en- 
gagement, received a bayonet thrust, or rather the Bible re- 
ceived it, which perforated fifty-two of its leaves, and thereby 
saved his life. He wore the Bible, it seems, over his heart, 
between his coat and waistcoat. 

Oh ! what a history is attached to the Bible as the com- 
panion of man through his earthly pilgrimage ! It has been in 
prisons oft, and perished in the flames with martyrs ; has been 
consulted by the tried and the tempted, the happy and the 



414 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

miserable — by the young and the old, in all ages of the world. 
It has been the solace of the widow, and the stay of the or- 
phan — even of those two little orphans, one thirteen and the 
other eleven, on their way to Liverpool to seek the protection 
of an uncle. Their father and mother had both died in London, 
of typhus fever. These children were noticed sitting b^ the 
wayside, hungry and penniless, and yet refusing jive shillings 
offered them for their Bible, clinging to it, though six shillings 
were offered them for it by a stranger. Poor boys ! young 
as they were, it had been the means of making them acquainted 
with Christ and true happiness, and part with it they would 
not ; besides, it was a Sabbath-school gift. The stranger, only 
wishing to test them, tried their faith yet further, by suggest- 
ing that perhaps their uncle would not take them in — then what 
would they do ? One of them replied, " Our Bible says that 
when father and mother forsake us, then the Lord will take us 
up." Tears rushing to the eyes of the stranger, prevented him 
from saying more. He and the two orphans wept together, 
and in him they found a friend. That night the little orphans 
knelt in prayer, in a comfortable room, arose refreshed in the 
morning, and pursued their way to Liverpool. I should like to 
know their future history. Perhaps we may read yet more of 
it, when studying the history of this book in heaven. 

In the hand of a wounded sailor, an aged sailor, as he lay 
in his bunk, was a Bible. The ship had passed out of a sharp 
fight at sea. The action was severe ; many were badly wounded, 
some mortally. Fifteen or twenty years had passed away 
since that Bible came into his possession, and all that time 
the secret weight of a murder pressing home upon his heart. 
In the following, you have the substance of what was related 



TO THE SAME THE BIBLE. 415 

as a fact : The dying old sailor had been very wicked in the 
early part of his life, and characterized by frequent spells of 
intoxication. In one of his drunken freaks, when in port, he 
flung his little boy (three years of age) into the sea, because 
he cried for bread, and he had none to give him. After the 
deed he staggered away. The child, doubtless by divine inter- 
position, by some means seized a floating plank, and on it 
drifted out to sea. The little fellow was noticed from the 
deck of a vessel, and rescued from a watery grave. Touched 
with his helpless condition, the sailors on board adopted the out- 
cast, and, growing up among them, he became an able seaman, 
and finally was promoted and made officer on board, if I 
remember aright, a ship of war. The wretched drunkard 
who had thus rid himself of his boy, sobered after a little, 
with a sad weight upon his conscience, which he dare not tell 
any one. A benevolent lady, struck with his appearance, pre- 
sented him with a Bible, and he went to sea again, taking it 
with him. He read it, and pondered, and by its instructions 
prayed, and found his way to the feet of a merciful Saviour. 
He continued much at sea, and became aged. After the action, 
as he lay dying, a young officer was attracted toward him with 
peculiar interest, and waited upon him and procured him com- 
forts. The old sailor, drawing near his end, in token of his 
gratitude presented the young officer with his old Bible, as a 
keepsake, begged him to listen while he relieved his mind of a 
tale of woe, told him how he had drowned his hoj; and of the 
gift of that Bible, and what it had done for his soul. It was 
the father confessing to his son ! Mutual recognition took 
place, and the old sailor expired in the arms of his honored 
and deeply affected son. The body was committed to the deep 



416 ARROWS FROTH MY QUIVER. 

to await the resurrection. The son examined the Bible, which 
bore the mark of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He, 
too, read the book, was led a humble penitent to Christ, found 
mercy, and became a preacher of the Gospel. The remainder 
of the story belongs, perhaps, to our future readings in the 
history of the Bible when we reach heaven. 

Millions of such incidents belong to Bible history. The 
recording angel has, doubtless, immortalized them — your own 
remarkable case among them ! Continue to search the Scrip- 
tures^ and love them while you search ; have faith in what you 
find by searching, and prove by practice that you have not 
searched them in vain ; and expect eternal life through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. If God shall call you to extensive usefulness 
in his cause, here is my prayer for you : 

"Furnished out of thy treasury, 

Oh ! may he always ready stand, 
To help the souls redeemed by thee, 

In what their various states demand : 
To teach, convince, correct, reprove ; 
And build them up in holiest love I " 




CHAPTER LVI. 

TO THE SAME THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 

'/ 

E it so ! — sail, or swim, or dive ! the Bible admits of 
all or any. You may sail or swim for pleasure or 
spiritual delight, or dive for pearls or intellectual 
profit. Those who practise the former, to the neglect of the 
latter, remind one too much of those summer insects which 
skip about only to dimple the surface of the water ; but there 
are others, like skilful divers, who descend into the profoundest 
depths, or deep as they can in those inspired waters, and en- 
rich themselves with pearls of divine truth, which angels desire 
to look into ! The former class are apt to be superficial in 
their piety and ideas. The latter, on the contrary, enter into 
" the deep things of God" possess a moral grandeur both in 
intellect and character, live to some purpose, and make their 
mark on the generation around them. 

To one of your observations, I reply : You will find it thus 
as you proceed. The sea is not all of a depth, neither is the 
Bible. The sky is not so brilliant with stars in some parts as 
in others. The sun does not traverse the northern sky, nor 
the moon ; but the aurora borealis, or northern lights, are there, 
and the polar star, so useful to the sailor when computing his 
northern latitude. As in astronomy all parts of the sky are 

essential, so in theology all parts of the Bible have their use, 

18* 



418 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

and are essential for the proper understanding of the will and 
ways of God. The moon, some nights, appears quite in our 
neighborhood, so near does she appear. The sun seems at a 
greater distance, as he really is. There are stars, too, which 
make nearer approaches to our homes and hearts ; while others 
in the stellar arrangement are at immeasurable distances from 
us. And there are depths in space of deeper, darker blue — 
rather altitudes, which no telescope can unfold or astronom- 
ical eye measure or investigate. It is thus that some parts of 
the Bible approach so much nearer our bosoms, business, and 
homes than others — those parts especially which lie quite be- 
yond the range of all our faculties, although accessible to our faith. 
The sea has depths which the sailor's plummet has never fathom- 
ed ; and the sky has altitudes which the astronomer's telescope 
has never yet explored. Who but a fool would take these facts 
as arguments against God being the author of such a creation ? 
Apply this thought to the Bible, and you have ray idea ! 

The Bible, sir, like that ocean of water below, and that 
ocean of space above, unconquered, unfallen, untired, unstained, 
unpolluted, unexplored, unchanged, tremendous, bowing to no 
name, yielding to no power, acknowledging no might, trem- 
bling before no authority but that of God Almighty, immense, 
unconstrained, illimitable, image of eternity, reinless, fathom- 
less, alone, in gloom or glory, alone ! throne of the Invisible, 
endless, boundless, sublime, amenable to the will and laws of 
the Eternal One alone, to him alone yielding homage, warring 
with man so frequently, because man is so frequently at war 
with its Sovereign God — glorious, terrible I 

" Where rolls the Almighty's thunder word." 



THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 419 

But such is our Bible ; that Book of books, as its Author 
is King of kings, God over all, blessed for ever ! Amen ! 

Another of your " observations " merits notice. You will 
learn the fact more and more as you peruse the Scriptures, that 
there* is an obvious meaning, that is, an evident or easily dis- 
covered sense ; and a spiritual meaning, which requires a class 
of renewed and spiritual faculties to perceive and appreciate. 
The letter and the spirit of Scripture is a good distinction ; like 
the scroll which the prophet Ezekial saw, which was written 
within and without — without in the evident, within in the hid- 
den, spiritual meaning, requiriug care, patience, and the closest 
attention. Proceed, my dear friend, without hurry of spirit. 
Entertain no weak ambition to read the Bible through in a 
short space of time. Those who indulge in this spirit receive 
but little good, and have but a superficial knowledge. They 
do not, as they might, " taste the good word of God ; " nor have 
they time, like the Psalmist, to "find wonderful things in the 
law" Ponder words and sentences, figures and metaphors. 
It is thus you will learn to say with one, that other books are 
but waste paper when compared with the Bible. It bears its 
own peculiar and heavenly stamp and character and spirit, 
which never can be successfully imitated or counterfeited. It 
is by these that Divine Providence has chiefly secured its pres- 
ervation. 

It is your duty to read other books ; for thereby you may 
gain much information, and a better understanding of the 
word of God. Besides, I like to know what fhe world is about, 
and what its great men are thinking about. But then, withr 
out asking their leave, I take them aside, and test or try them 
by the Scriptures. I commend a similar course to you ; and 



420 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

also with regard to the sermons which you hear, and the opin- 
ions which may he current in your own neighborhood or circle : 
bring them all under the inquisition of the Bible ! God has 
bestowed upon you the excellent gift of reason for this very 
purpose. The Bereans, we read in Acts xvii. 2, won the title 
of real nobility by so doing : " These were more noble than 
those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all 
readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether 
these things were so ; therefore many of them believed, also of 
the honorable women which were Greeks, and of men not a few" 
Herein you may discover a thorough Protestant principle, a 
principle which, sooner than abandon, the people of England, 
and of the United States of America, would see their respective 
countries drenched in blood. Amen ! for the glory of those 
lands is entirely involved in this principle. 

All sermons, books, and opinions of a religious character 
profess, or should do so, to be but transcripts of the will of 
God, as revealed in the Scriptures of truth. By that standard, 
therefore, we have a just right to try them. We consider the 
copy of a deed or record of no further use than as it agrees 
with the original deed or record. This is a legal idea, but it 
is truly in place here ! We are commanded in the Scriptures 
to " try the spirits whether they be of God;" for there are 
spirits as well as doctrines which are not of God. Nor should 
we forget to pray for that " unction from the Holy One," of 
which St. John speaks, and that " anointing which abideth, 
which we receive of Him" And always decide, just as obsti- 
nately as you please, that whatever contradicts the plain decla- 
rations of the word of God cannot be of God, neither he that 
loveth not his brother. 



THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 421 

And you have been "tempted" too! Ay! and now you 
begin to feel and know, what you once doubted, that there is 
a devil, and a malicious one. While you obeyed him, and 
drifted with the stream of your unrenewed nature, he did 
not oppose you, of course. But a changed nature, with re- 
versed tendencies, has awakened Satan : " Now I shall lose 
this sinner if I deal with a slack hand ! " By learning to will 
only what, God wills, you have come to learn the force of 
Satan's will. And if he had ability equal to his malignity, he 
would quite overthrow you. But, thank God, though his mal- 
ice be infinite, we know that his power is finite ! And equally 
comfortable is the knowledge that " He who is for us is greater 
than all who are against us ! " (alory be to God for this as- 
surance! Be courageous, my friend, and march forward. 
Satan expects to be bruised under your feet shortly, therefore 
he bruises you ; although he cannot but know that the more 
he bruises you, the more he shall be bruised, by and by, 
himself. 

" The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" take 
that and use it against Satan. He dreads it, ever since Jesus 
Christ tried its edge against him, three times during his temp- 
tation in the wilderness. (Matt, iv.) " It is written." Oh ! but 
that was indeed " the jewelled hilt whose diamonds did light 
the passage of the blade ! " The blade, under your hand, is a 
promise, a threatening, or a doctrine, to which, in a moment of 
time, you can attach the hilt, "It is written." Thus furnished, 
my brother, so lately found in Christ, lay this sword around 
you with heart and in faith, and with the energy of another 
Samson. If that old hero slew " heaps upon heaps " of Philis- 
tines with " the jaw-bone of an ass," what may not you accom- 



422 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

plish against the Philistines of hell, with the Spirit 1 s sword! 
I tell you, ray friend, the old Leviathan of Hell dreads a Chris- 
tian thus armed, more than his old namesake of the deep, the 
famous little sword-fish ! 

As to those who rebut the doctrine of eternal punishment 
by texts which never were designed to prove that doctrine, 
but rather something else — namely, that sinners may escape 
if they will, by a timely repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ — never mind them ! They are, in themselves, convicted 
of their own sophistry. The more you know of such men, you 
will find that this habit of dodging Scripture is but a part and 
parcel of their spiritual tactics, to deceive others, and befool 
and ruin themselves ! Speak of " the wrath of God" and " the 
justice of God" and they dodge behind his mercy, and will 
make it appear that you deny his mercy, while you do nothing 
of the sort. Quote his threatenings, and they will instantly 
array against your inferences his promises I A mode of reason- 
ing, to use the ideas of another, as if to your remark that an 
anchor falling into the sea will sink to the bottom, another op- 
poses the notion, by stating, what you do not deny, that a ship 
will float on the surface. You tell him that arsenic is poison, 
but he insists that it has a sweet taste, and will have you talk 
about its sweetness, and not of its poisonous qualities. It is as 
if you were speaking of a certain judge, that in case of convic- 
tion he will sentence the criminal to punishment, and you are 
opposed by the idea that the judge loves his own children, 
and you are libelling the paternal character ! If you cite " a 
just God and a Saviour, " they will lay their heads upon the 
second part and go to sleep, and dream that the other is a lie ! 

Always remember, brother, that there are Bible readers 



THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 423 

who very much resemble some small shopkeepers, whose capital 
being small in their line of business, you find them dealing in a 
limited assortment of articles ; while other readers of the Bible 
are like large or wholesale traders or merchants, who have a 
general assortment of goods. Some shops present you with a 
tempting array of confectionery, candies, gingerbread, etc., 
etc., but none of the substantial elements of life : a great dif- 
ference between such and those traders who advertise " a 
general assortment of goods, wholesale and retail." There are 
readers who trade only in the sweetmeats of the Scriptures, 
declarations which commend the promises, and promises which 
illustrate the declarations, and these they deal out to every- 
body, without respect to character. But they will have noth- 
ing to do with declarations which defend the threatenings of 
God, nor with threatenings which vindicate his declarations. 
Without any scruple whatever, they will even " take the chil- 
dren 's bread and give it to dogs / " We meet such small 
traders everywhere, and nothing else will they keep in their 
shop. They cannot afford to have it otherwise. The Lord 
have mercy on them, and open their eyes before it is too late ! 
But the Bible has readers, who, like those large and general 
traders, deal equally in both the promises and threatenings of 
God. 

Several heresies of our times arise from mistaken and par- 
tial views of God's character. God has reason, if he thought 
proper, to thunder from the heavens in the ears of men that 
declaration in the fiftieth Psalm : " Thou thoughtest that I was 
altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and 
set them in order before thine eyes" Or, as he spake by the 
prophet Isaiah, " Their fear of me is taught by the precepts of 



424 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

men " — not such a fear as Paul afterward so faithfully declared : 
11 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ; 
for our God is a consuming fire?" 1 " Thou thoughtest that I 
was altogether such an one as thyself." This is really tracing 
error up to its source — thinking God to be altogether such as 
themselves. Pagan idolatry, and the wretched character of 
their gods, may be traced to this error. What our Lord said 
of the Samaritans, " Ye worship ye know not what," is truly 
applicable to many errorists of our day. 

Such a God as would suit some, must strongly resemble 
old Eli, the high priest, who quietly said to his wicked sons, 
" Why do ye such things ? For I hear of your evil dealings 
by all this people. Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that 
I hear ; ye make the Lord's people to transgress." Yet he cor- 
rected them not, nor deposed them from office, till at last he 
himself was deposed, falling backward from his chair broken- 
hearted, and broke his own neck in the fall. Such a very 
harmless God, smiling with complacency upon all sorts of sin 
and sinners, without disposition or power to punish in that 
eternity to which they are hastening, would suit a large class of 
men admirably ! They would wade to their knees in blood to 
defend the faith of such a God, were they entirely sure that 
such a being existed. I need not tell you, this is not the God 
of the Bible. But if we ask them to look over or through 
certain texts which would give tbem a correct view of God, 
they refuse as significantly as the bigoted philosopher in 
Florence, who refused to look at the heavens through one of 
Galileo's telescopes, lest he should happen to see something up 
there that would disturb his belief in his own system of 
philosophy. 



THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 425 

A full-orbed view of God, such as the Scriptures afford, is 
the grand method provided to cure such errors. But they tell 
us the Bible is a great book, and that they have no time to 
devote to the herculean task — that they select such passages as 
happen to fall in with their notions of the Supreme Being, and 
those " at second hand," poor souls, from the lips of some 
preacher or other, or neighbor, leaving a closer investigation 
of the subject to those who have more time upon their hands, 
or a taste for such matters — that they have gathered enough 
to satisfy them. And yet, how dogmatically they will assert 
their opinions ! How impatient of contradiction ! How care- 
less as to the risk they are running ! Nevertheless, if you find 
one of these about to purchase property, with what scrutiny he 
will examine every part of the title-deed which conveys it to 
him ; a single omission might be a serious loss. " An indispu- 
table title" too, or he will have nothing to do with it ! It is 
with such persons as with a man w T ho happens to have a strange 
prejudice against seeing the moon at the full, because that 
being the time when crazy folks are at the worst. He has no 
great liking for the moon at the change either, from a similar 
crotchet he has got in his head ! But having had a glimpse 
some years ago of the moon in her first quarter, he says that 
was enough for him, and further acquaintance with that lumi- 
nary was quite unnecessary — might deprive him of his senses 
altogether ; and so persists to speak and think of the moon 
only in the first quarter ; while the truth is, he prefers not to 
think of her at all ! It is thus you may learn to understand 
and pity some of your neighbors. Thus they prefer to think 
of God, from some partial glimpses they have had of his char- 
acter ; but a further acquaintance w T ith him would be disagree- 



426 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

able. " / have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; but 
now mine eye seeth thee ; wherefore I abhor myself and repent 
in dust and ashes I " Such was Job's exclamation after a great 
discovery of God. By tradition, and other imperfect sources 
of information, he had learned something of God ; had ob- 
tained some partial views "of his holiness and justice. But now 
a clearer view quite overwhelms him. He sees what he never 
saw before, and therefore feels what he never felt before, and 
repents in dust and ashes. But for the general uprightness of 
Job's character, according to the light he had, and the sincerity 
of his heart, he would have abhorred this view of God as 
much as he abhorred himself, and, like your neighbors, depre- 
cated any more such terrible revelations of the divine charac- 
ter. But ah ! how terrible, then, to the sinful soul must be the 
first flashes of this discovery, on its entrance into eternity ! 
* ****** 

No ! It was best to stop just where I did. I believe with 
Virgil that every theme, light and trivial, as well as weighty 
and important, wants a wide field and long ; that the tongue 
of man is voluble, and that as we speak, so shall we hear 
again ! A fool may receive an answer equal to his folly, but a 
reply may be expected of like nature, and so a great dust is 
raised about nothing. I had other uses for my time. Besides, 
the sentiment of the hero in the Iliad occurred : 

"But wherefore should we longer waste our time 
In idle prate, while tattle roars around f " 

In behalf of Christians, a few words for the circle in the 
" conversazione." Philosophers, in assembly, once replied to 
a musician that they could be merry without music ; and one 



THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 427 

would think these might be merry without sporting with the 
characters of Christians and their humble preacher. They 
should remember that when the Philistines called in blind and 
disabled Samson to make sport for them, they paid dearly for 
it. The Samsons are not all dead yet, nor the locks of the 
strength shorn. Blessed be God ! 

They seem fond of similes. Here is one, as if it had been 
written expressly for them : " Suppose you stood by a danger- 
ous mire, through which was a narrow track of firm ground, 
and should see a company of poor creatures sinking- and almost 
swallowed up, on the one hand and on the other ; and yet you 
should see them laughing and jeering at those who kept on the 
narrow track of firm ground : would you not say, they are all 
mad and bewitched ? " They are cute enough to understand 
the figure, therefore I leave it with them, " without note or 
comment ! " — unless they should deny its application ; in which 
case I would commend to their consideration those lines of 
an old poet : 

" "Well sleep on now, and take thy soft reposes ; 
But know, withal, sweet tastes have sour closes ; 
And he repents on thorns that sleeps on roses ! " 

To some of the more serious among them I would say, if 
they would be so good as to define their notions of "pulpit 
style," and, if they desire Gospel at all, how they think it 
should be preached, one could better understand them. I have 
some impression, T fancy, of their meaning, and what would be 
acceptable, but I forbear for the present. 

A few remarks, however, in that direction, may not be 
amiss. In St. Paul's times, the Jews required a sign, and the 



428 ARROWS FROM MT QUIVER. 

Greeks sought after wisdom ; but "he minded the prejudices of 
neither, but preached Christ crucified, though to the one it 
was a stumbling-block, and foolishness to the other. It quite 
satisfied him that to some of his hearers, both Jews and 
Greeks, his preaching was " Christ, the power of God, and the 
wisdom of God I " My compliments to the circle, and say my 
belief is this, that sincerity and simplicity should be pulpit 
companions; nor do I ever wish to separate them from my 
heart and lips. Indeed, I could not, if I would — that is, retain 
one and dismiss the other; when one goes, I do not see how 
the other can stay ! Certain classes of hearers do not well 
understand these things. But I have no taste, nor should they, 
for straining at things which do not lie near unto us, and, as 
it were, natural to us — bombastry is the word — a sort of bastard 
eloquence (excuse me) ; or, if you like it better, a stretching and 
swelling of words beyond the capacity of an idea. It was said 
of one that his words were all forty-seven pounders, but too 
big for the sentences in which they appeared ! Worse still when 
it happens that the words altogether outgrow the ideas of the 
preacher ! 

Such persons as those which daily cross your path will give 
you plenty to do in that line, if you mind them ; proud, know- 
nothing, question-sick persons, as Paul calls them. The original 
of 1 Tim. vi. 4 will sustain this construction. Their notions of 
God are crude and confused, and can do you no good. God, 
as one justly observes, is not eternity nor infinity, but he is 
eternal and infinite. He is not duration nor space, but he en- 
dures and is present — constitutes, so to speak, duration and 
space, eternity and infinity. Besides, if mind, sound, stones, 
flavor are impervious to our penetration or comprehension, 



THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 429 

how much more the mode and manner of the divine existence ! 
" JVo man hath seen God at any time" says Jesus. " God is a 
spirit" he declared on another occasion. If we cannot see 
him with our natural eyes, nor comprehend him with our 
understanding, we may feel his presence in our spirits and his 
love in our hearts. Oh ! let us be ambitious rather to love, 
adore, and obey, than to comprehend the Incomprehensible. 

The belief in a God we may trace back into the most 
ancient times — no nation without some form of religion, none 
professing atheism. Calvin, in his " Institutes," observes of 
idolatry itself, that men would rather have false gods than 
none. They will rather worship anything than nothing ! And 
so it was, according to the Bible : when there were but three 
men in the world, we find two of them offering sacrifices to 
God, taught, doubtless, by the third. A quick, lively soul in 
a sick, dying body, was, in ancient times, a proof of God, and 
of the immortality of the soul. God leaves not himself without 
a witness. We see the sun by his own light, and God may 
be seen by his own light, through air and sky and solid 
ground — the glory of God, of which, according to the Psalmist, 
the earth and sea are full, and the heavens themselves declare. 
Far from us be the thought that the world is left without an 
enlightening God ; as soon may we believe in a sunless uni- 
verse. 

Man must have a God, and a religion of some sort ; he is a 
religious creature, although a depraved creature. " Pass over 
the earth," says Plutarch, "you may discover cities without 
walls, without literature, without monarchs, without palaces 
or wealth, where the theatre and the school are not known ; 
but no man ever saw a city without temples and gods, where 



430 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

prayers and oaths and oracles and sacrifices were not used 
for obtaining good or averting evil." This eminent writer, 
you may remember, resided at Rome during the reign of the 
Emperor Trajan. 

That little incident in the life of Napoleon Bonaparte is 
worthy of regard. During the French Revolution, the churches 
were all closed, and the clergy deprived of their functions. 
When Napoleon came into power he reopened the churches 
and reinstated Christianity : although strongly inclined to 
skepticism himself, he more than once avowed the propriety 
and necessity of what he had done. One evening, when walk- 
ing on the terrace of the garden of his favorite villa Malmai- 
son, he observed to the company present, eminent persons, 
among whom was Volney, the celebrated infidel: "Religion 
is a principle which cannot be eradicated from the heart of 
man." And, looking up to the sky, which was clear and starry, 
he said, " Who made all that ? " and added, " But last Sun- 
day evening I was walking here alone, when the church bells 
of the village of Rueil rang at sunset ; I was strongly moved, 
so vividly did the image of early days come back with that 
sound. If it be thus with me, what must it be with others ? " 
But it is only the real Christian who realizes the truth of 
Fenelon's remark, that the Christian's life is a long and continual 
tendency of the heart toward that eternal goodness which he 
desires on earth. Indeed, all his happiness consists in thirst- 
ing after it, and this thirst is prayer ; this desire, he added, to 
approach the Creator, inspires never-ceasing prayer, and this 
consists simply in raising the heart to God. What a beautiful 
comment on that declaration of Jesus, " Blessed are they which 
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled I " 



THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 431 

and those words of Paul, " Pray without ceasing'''' ! Ponder 
these remarks, my friend ; they will do you more good than 
those doting speculations and strife of words, which do but 
engender strife and unbelief. 

Time admonishes me to stop here; yet a caution upon 
another subject may be profitable to you, circumstanced as 
you are. What they require is simply an impossibility ; there- 
fore be not troubled about an answer. It would perplex and 
confound the wisest brains in Christendom to conceive of the 
manner in which something was created out of nothing — exist- 
ence from non-existence. "In the beginning God created the 
heavens and the earth" (Gen. i. 1.) Compare with Heb. xi. 
3 : " Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed 
by the word of God, so that things which are seen toere not 
made of things which do appear.' 1 '' What a striking comment 
on the word " created" which signifies to make out of nothing ! 
But mark ! It is a subject for faith, that is, for belief and not 
comprehension: " through faith we understand; " that none of 
the things which do appear were made out of preexistent mat- 
ter ; faith in God can easily understand how the power of God 
could bring being out of nonentity. 

The manner of such a creation, how it was done, lies quite 
out of the province of the human understanding ; yet, that 
the power of God could and did create all things out of nothing 
is quite within the comprehension of faith ! Indeed, the con- 
trary is the most difficult to believe of the two, encumbered in 
fact with absolute absurdities and contradictions. 

That your "querists"''' have most of the ancient philoso- 
phers on their side, is likely enough. They saw plainly " that 
nothing was or could be created out of nothing ;" hence their 



432 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

dogma of the eternity of matter. You may remind them, 
however, that the wisest portion of these ancients admitted the 
existence of a God from eternity. The even went so far as 
this, to allow his nature to be not only distinct from matter, 
and underived, but that he created the qualities and properties 
of matter. 

At this point their faith failed ; for we find them stagger- 
ing back upon the old dogma, the eternity of matter — soon, 
however, to rally again, under the force of what appears to be 
a primitive or intuitive idea in man — of a God, self-existent, 
possessing all power to create, uphold, and govern all things. 
That we find them again in collision with this idea, and deny- 
ing that God either did or could create the original matter of 
the universe out of nothing, cannot be denied ; nor that it in- 
volved them in endless disputes and contradictions, and even the 
greatest absurdities ; to escape from which they took refuge in 
the belief of an endless variety of gods, furnishing most con- 
vincing proof of that declaration of the inspired word, " The 
world by wisdom knew not God." (1 Cor. i. 21.) We are quite 
satisfied, therefore, to remain steadfast in our belief in the 
Mosaic account of the Creation. 




CHAPTER LVII. 

TO : THE SCRIPTURES DEFENDED. 

' f aSlT i s one thing to wall oneself around with the promises 
of God, and another to intrench behind the sophistries 
'{ of infidelity. Beware how you treat the Scriptures. 
If the Almighty called unto Moses, when impelled by curiosity 
to rush forward irreverently to examine the phenomenon of a 
bush in a blaze, burning on and yet unconsumed, "Moses, Moses ! 
Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the 
place whereon thou standest is holy ground,' 1 we may well suppose 
that he desires to see us approach his holy word reverently, 
and tread with solemnity the awfully pleasing walks of in- 
spiration. 

2. Indeed, sir, I know of no surer sign that God intends to 
destroy a sinner, than when he leaves him to jest with his word 
without compunction. That young man had a narrow escape, 
rely upon it, who was seized with trembling when about to 
oner indignity to the Bible, exclaiming to his companions, with 
a faltering voice, " We will not burn that book until we get 
a better." It had been agreed among his companions that 
one of their number should, in their presence, lay the Bible on 
the fire; and the lot fell upon him. But some restraining 
grace yet remained in his heart, and God did not leave him to 

commit the damning offence. He had, indeed, actually laid 

19 



434 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

hold upon it, but in doing so, a paleness gathered on his cheek, 
a strong tremor seized his heart, and the Bible was returned 
to its place, with those words upon his lips, " We will not 
burn that book until we get a better." He is in his grave now. 
Contempt for God's word had occupied his heart. An insult 
to it was in his intention. It was, perhaps, what St. John 
calls "a sin unto death" in the unfinished sense, forfeiting 
the life of his body, while mercy yet remained for his soul. 
That mercy it is hoped he found. He died not long after, a 
true penitent. 

3. The Bible, though " a dreary enclosure of weeds " to you 
and your companions, is an Eden of flowers to us. Though a 
thing of insipidity to you, it is full of the honey of knowledge 
to us, wherewith we fill every cell of our affections and under- 
standing. Thus, sir, like bees in their hives, we lay that up 
in our hearts, which is better than silver or gold in the win- 
ter of adversity : " More to be desired than gold, yea, than much 
fine gold" said the Psalmist ; " sweeter also than honey and the 
honey-comb.'''' He was speaking of " the judgments of the Lord" 
of his law, his statutes, and his commandments; adding, '''•More- 
over, by them is thy servant warned : and in keeping of them 
there is great reward." Do you wonder, then, that we are so 
attached to the precious volume ? 

4. We love also the writings of the great and the good of 
our own and past ages. They also are " like the smell of a field 
which God hath blessed," redolent with the sunshine and fra- 
grance of heaven. But the Bible is our garden of Eden, where 
we walk with God, and regale ourselves with all manner of 
fruit, and have free access to " the tree of life, which grows in 
the midst of the garden" and to " the tree of knowledge" Here 



THE SCRIPTURES DEFENDED. 435 

we recreate, and grow in grace and knowledge, and in sweet 
expectation of being translated by-and-by to the Eden above ! 
We part with the Eden of Scripture when about to take pos- 
session of that. " Take my Bible from me, keep it safe, and let 
it not gather dust ; I can read it no more ! " said a godly dying 
mother to her daughter, a few moments before she expired. 

5. There is a system of medicine which rejects the fra- 
grance of flowers, because supposed to hinder the operation of 
its remedies. There are systems of error which reject the 
beautiful flowers of inspiration, for a similar reason, I suppose. 
Those who are tinctured with certain infidel remedies, are sin- 
gularly averse to them. Is it not so with yourself? I confess 
to a fondness for the flowers of Scripture. They do set off a 
sermon well, sir, and shed a sweet perfume through all the 
Church of God. That you profess an insensibility to such fra- 
grance, is not to be wondered at. If it does not neutralize the 
effect of the nostrums you have been taking, why, not unlikely, 
those nostrums have neutralized the effects of that fragrance — 
that is all ! The excellent Mr. Jay, of Bath — that ornament of 
your country, and glory of his denominational pulpit — it was 
said of him that he revelled like a honey-bee among the flow- 
ers of Scripture, to the annoyance of some, it seems, who, from 
causes best known to themselves, expressed disrelish for such 
a profusion of them in his discourses. But one of a different 
taste made the charming remark, that his sermons were 
adorned with the beauty and redolent with the fragrance of 
flowers culled from the garden of inspiration ; that he brought 
his Scripture proofs and illustrations, as classic quotations are 
by public orators, to grace a speech, and to convey the speaker's 
idea in the apposite language of high authority ! 



436 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

As to the " superficial peculiarities " of the hoolt, the diffi- 
culty is in the opposite direction, I fancy. The Bible may be 
somewhat too deep for your understanding ! How is it ? 
Centuries ago, a learned man compared the Scriptures to a 
river with fords so shallow that a lamb might wade, and gulfs 
so deep that an elephant might swim ! The fords, after all, may 
be the safest for you; but I commend to your notice # the^wZ/s, 
just as a quiet antidote to pride. There is no difficulty in 
finding them, as they will meet you at every turn after you 
leave the fordable passages ! For my part, I glory in those 
parts of inspiration which compel me to exclaim, with holy 
Paul, " the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and 
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and 
his ways past finding out ! " Both these peculiarities of Scrip- 
ture are convincing proofs of the wisdom and benevolence of 
God. 

" The repetitions of which you complain, arise, in part, 
from the Scriptures being divided into two parts, the Old and 
the New Testament, each belonging to different dispensa- 
tions, and designed mutually to illustrate each other; and from 
the fact, besides, that some of the writers describe the same 
event, sometimes, indeed, from a different stand-point. But 
while they harmonize in the -general facts, there is much 
variety in the details, one noticing what the other for some 
reason omitted. This, to me, is a deeply interesting pecu- 
liarity. Have you never noticed after any great event or 
catastrophe has occurred, how eagerly successive newspapers 
are read, and with what patience people will- read over a fresh 
version of the circumstances ? and though half a column or 
a column may differ but little from what they had read before, 



THE SCRIPTURES DEFENDED. 437 

yet if a few items are found there, not previously known, they 
feel amply repaid. We have noticed something similar in 
courts of law, in the examination of witnesses. 

That the New Testament is veiled in the Old, and the Old 
Testament is revealed in the New, you should always remember 
when reading the Scriptures. A large portion, however, of the 
New Testament is indeed new, and differs greatly from the Old 
Testament, of which there are about two hundred and sixty pas- 
sages cited in the New, and always for evident purposes — chiefly 
the unfolding of God's counsels in the fulfilment of prophecy. 

The departments of inspiration which you consider " en- 
cumbrances," are usually as necessary to the whole, as the 
walks are to your fine garden. We cannot do without them. 
Their absence would be greatly detrimental, and very far from 
adding to our comfort in our excursions through the pleasing 
shades of revelation. I do confess that I sympathize with 
Luther's declaration, that for the whole world he would not 
that one leaf should be lost from the Bible ; and also with 
Latimer, who said, " I would be ruled by God's book, and 
rather than depart from one jot of it, I would be torn by wild 
horses ! " In all that relates to faith and practice, and where 
moral principle and precept are involved, and not in things in- 
different, as forms and ceremonies, who can doubt the propriety 
of his resolve ? 

It is perilous to tamper with a chart, is it not ? Those parts 
which may be of little importance to one captain, may be of 
the highest importance to another. The Chart of the New 
Dispensation does not render unnecessary that of the Old. 
A chart of the Atlantic will not indeed suffice him who is 
threading the coral reefs of the Pacific Ocean. The authorized 



438 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

chart for those seas must be consulted ; but the former chart, 
in some of its bearings, may be of some use under circum- 
stances ; nor will he presume to spread a sail upon the former 
ocean, in coasting especially, without the chart which belongs 
to it. Can you make the application ? 

* * * * * * 

Suppose a family habitually to close their doors and 
windows against the light of heaven, preferring candle-light, or 
gas-light, as more agreeable and suitable for the transaction 
of household affairs, what would you think of their judgment? 
Would you advise your family to follow their example ? But 
revelation is a light from heaven ! The light of reason, when 
compared to that, is but as the light of a candle to the sun ! 
A family preferring the glimmerings of reason to the light of 
the Bible is a deistical family, to say the least. If such be 
your family, I pity you ! To call this " independence, and glory 
in it," and dub your witty flashes " arguments," is, to use a 
phrase of a friend of mine, " not only ludicrous, but pitiable." 
It is, as the poet observes, to 

"Spike up your inch of reason ou the point 
Of philosophic wit, called argument, 
And then, exulting in your taper, cry, 
Behold the sun, and, Indian-like, adore 1 '• 

Ay! adoring not only your taper, but some fragments of 
morality, wmichtrue Christians — ay ! even the generality — have 
as well as yourself and family ; but a system of morality in 
every-day practice, to which, I venture to say, neither you nor 
your household would be willing to conform — simply, the en- 
tire morality enjoined in the New Testament; which consists, 



THE SCRIPTURES DEFENDED. 439 

as Paul declares, of " whatsoever things are true, honest, just, 
pure, lovely, and of good report." Nor is it of any use for you 
to point to a few backsliders, in and out of Zion, or deceived or 
deceiving professors. There are some thousands of real Chris- 
tians in this town, whose characters will bear your closest com- 
parison with the above apostolical rule ! 

By the way, do you remember reading an extract from a 
well-authenticated letter of the late Hon. John Randolph ? 
That famous and somewhat eccentric gentleman, when writing 
a letter to a friend, one early morning, by candle-light, on 
looking around was surprised to find his room filled with the 
light of day. Now mark, he was not a professor of religion. 
After extinguishing his candles, he closed his letter by remark- 
ing on the trifling incident, that in the presence of day-light, 
had he continued to write by the light of his candles, the pres- 
ence of the king of day would have very soon rendered them 
remarkable only for that dirt and ill savor which betray all 
human contrivances ! And, referring to the subject on- which 
he had been writing, he added, "Morality is to the Gospel, 
not even as a farthing candle to the light of the blessed sun ! " 
Ponder the remark, will you ? 

But, to return to your " statements," what have you stated 
that was not found in the Bible centuries before you were born ? 
It requires all my patience, I must confess, to find men laying 
down principles of right and wrong, and exulting in them as 
new discoveries, and worthy of being set in print, and added 
as a new chapter to divine revelation, when they are there 
already, and stated, too, in a much clearer manner, and in more 
beautiful and convincing language ! Do, sir, be so kind as to 
indicate to me, in all you have written, a single point of right 



440 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

or wrong not acknowledged in the book you consider so defi 
cient. Nor do I stop here, but I apply the same to your 
statements on other themes! More than this: I will allow 
your inventive faculty one entire month to write about God, 
the human soul, and the properties of morals, and then I shall 
claim to declare, in favor of the Bible, that you have succeeded 
in adding nothing to what is recorded in that book upon these 
subjects ! 

These remarks, I am aware, are not particularly nattering 
to your " reason," and to " the light thereof." Nevertheless, 
if you did but perceive the sarcasm that lurks behind the idea 
of a man lighting his candle in order to see the sun, you might 
possibly be thankful that I have refrained from calling it forth 
against yourself ! Allow me, however, to remind you, that had 
the sun of revelation never showered upon you with its beams, 
your candle would emit as uncertain a ray upon those themes, 
as that of Cicero, or Plato, who cautioned his hearers to ex- 
pect nothing beyond mere conjecture regarding these things ! 

The Bible has removed the difficulties and uncertainties 
which so impeded those giant intellects of olden times in the 
investigations' of such subjects. They had no " Thus saith the 
Lord." Hence all was conjecture with them. You have the 
light of the Scriptures, and other aids besides : lift your eyes 
to the shelves of your fine library ! Who but Christian authors 
wrote all that, or the greater part of it ! It is not to be doubted 
you have consulted them frequently in bygone years. Can 
you deny that they have taught your reason how to shine ? 
What a pity they did not succeed in teaching it to reverence 
the Bible — which, if I may be allowed the use of the phrase, 
is, next to God himself, "the father of lights" among authors! 



THE SCRIPTURES DEFENDED. 441 

A remark or two from the celebrated Locke may be of use 
to you in the present juncture. " He that travels the road 
now, applauds his ow T n strength and legs, that have carried him 
so far in such a scantling of time, and ascribes all to his own 
vigor ; little considering how much he owes to their pains who 
cleared the woods, drained the bogs, built the bridges, and 
made the ways passable, without which he might have toiled 
much with little progress ! " He further observed, that a great 
many things which we have been bred up to the belief of from 
our cradles, aud are now grown familiar (and as it were natu- 
ral to us under the Gospel), we take for unquestionable, obvious 
truths, and easily demonstrable, without considering how long 
we might have been in ignorance of them had revelation been 
silent. And that many others are beholden to revelation who 
do not acknowledge it — that it is not diminishing to revelation, 
that reason gives its suffrage to the truths revelation has dis- 
covered ; but it is our mistake to think that, because reason 
confirms them to us, we have the first certain knowledge of 
them from thence, and in that clear evidence we now possess 
them ! This is all 1 have time to say at present. 

19* 




CHAPTER LVIII. 

TO THE SAME — THE HUMAN SOUL. 

'HEN speaking of the character of infidels and various 
grades of skeptics, I meant their general character — 
the character of a vast majority of them, and not 
individual exceptions. We have known some, we admit, quife 
moral, loaded down with " dead works," as St. Paul calls them 
— works which owe their existence to other principles alto- 
gether than the faith and love of God in Christ Jesus our 
Lord ; some who disliked vice as much as they did zeal in re- 
ligion, and who were as averse to unclea,nness as to holiness ! 
The whole truth came out after their conversion, that, as one 
remarked, they abhorred jail sins, but made no conscience of 
Gospel sins ; refrained from gross sins and open sins, but were 
not ashamed to practise heart sins and secret sins. . And 
would to God, dear sir, that even many of us professing Chris- 
tians could quite clear ourselves in this matter. 

" From sin and grief, from fear and shame. 
I hide me, Jesus, in thy name ! " 

Augustine .called some sins " silken sins" but the thought 
alarmed him that a person might go to hell in silk as in cotton 
■ — that silk would burn as readily as sackcloth. 

My " pulpit figures " I change as often as convenient, with- 



TO THE SAME THE HUMAN SOUL. 443 

out scruple ; and I have one appropriate to a nimble friend of 
yours, who seems somewhat ambitious to take the subject out 
of your hands. Be so kind as to ask him if he heard of that 
butcher who, a while since, lighted a candle, and quite forgot 
he had stuck it in his hat, and by the light of what he denied 
he went on searching for the candle, and, in the mean time, 
found the article which he wanted most, and for which he had 
lighted his candle ! That, I believe, is the story in a few 
words ! Your friend, like the butcher and his candle, has quite 
forgotten the whereabouts of the Bible upon such subjects, and 
yet, by the aid of that unacknowledged luminary, he has 
lighted upon some great truths, which, but for the aid of the 
mislaid Bible, he was never likely to stumble upon. I hope 
he will not be offended, but, in pondering his "great dis- 
covery," I could not help thinking of the butcher and his 
candle ! 

Pagan philosophers have long had my admiration for some 
of their rich and spicy sayings. Yet, when reading some of 
their remarks, it is impossible for an intelligent Christian of 
the present day not to be aware that similar sayings, and in 
language more impressive, were recorded in a book called the 
Bible, ages before such philosophers came into the world ! 
However, one never blames them for not crediting a book 
which they never saw. It is only in our day, in matters of 
religious speculation, that we find facsimiles of the Athenian 
madman, who claimed every ship that came into port as his 
own, though he originated not a plank in one of them, nor 
owned a single punt in any port in Greece ! So much for 
originality ! 

If modern writers sustain their arguments upon the des- 



4A4: ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

tiny of man, in a manner more confident and convincing than 
the ancient pagan writers, it is fully accounted for in the fact 
that they write by the light of revelation. It is a great weak- 
ness in your friend to take pains, even to conceal it from him- 
self — attributing that to reason which has been borrowed from 
revelation ! 

An agreeable example now occurs to me, of an honorable 
intellect of the last century, relating his own private reflec- 
tions — one who stood high in the literary world, but who was 
never, I believe, assailed with the vanity of a single insinua- 
tion that he had ever discovered a single truth in morals or in 
religion, or in the science of mind, independent of divine rev- 
elation, or unsupported by it. And yet with what simplicity 
and beauty he reasoned upon the arguments available for the 
immortality of the soul, its immateriality, its passions, particu- 
larly its love of existence, its horror of annihilation, its hopes 
of immortality,. its sweet satisfaction in the practice of virtue, 
and its secret uneasiness upon the commission of vice; and 
that the nature of the Supreme Being, his goodness, justice, 
wisdom, and veracity, are all as so many sacred pledges for the 
immortality of the soul. 

His works I have not at hand to quote correctly, but I 
remember, in my younger days, how agreeably I was moved 
by his observations upon the perpetual progress of the human 
soul to perfection, without the possibility of ever arriving at 
it; and his argument for its immortality, drawn therefrom; 
that it was a mystery to him, how the thought could enter the 
human mind that a soul, so capable of immense improvement, 
and of receiving fresh accessions of knowledge to all eternity, 
should fall into nothing almost as soon as created ! — could sup- 



TO THE SAME THE HUMAN SOUL. 445 

pose that such amazing attributes as the mind possesses have 
been created for no purpose. A brute, after living a few years, 
arrives at a point of perfection beyond which he cannot go, 
were he to live ten thousand more. Were the human soul, he 
continued, to stand still thus in her accomplishments, and her 
faculties evince incapacity for further enlargements, he could 
then imagine it might fall into insensibility in death, and drop 
at once into a state of annihilation. But to believe that a 
thinking being, in a state of perpetual progress of improve- 
ment, and travelling on from one point of perfection to another — 
after having just looked abroad into the works of its Crea- 
tor, and made a few discoveries of his infinite wisdom and 
power — must perish at her first setting out, and in the very 
• beginning of her inquiries ! — the thought is preposterous ! To 
him, he confessed, there was not a more pleasing and triumph- 
ant consideration in religion than this — the perpetual progress 
which the soul makes toward the perfection of its nature, 
without ever arriving at a period in it ; to look upon a soul as 
going on from strength to strength — to consider that she is 
to shine forever, with new accessions of glory, and brighten to 
all eternity — that she is still adding virtue to virtue, and knowl- 
edge to knowledge — carries in it something wonderfully agree- 
able to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man. 
He even considered the prospect as pleasing to God himself, 
to see his creation forever beautifying in his eyes, and drawing 
nearer and nearer to him, by greater degrees of resemblance. 
The single consideration of the progress of a finite spirit to 
perfection, he argued, would be sufficient to extinguish all envy 
in inferior natures, and all contempt in superior; that the 
cherubim, which now appears as a god to a human soul, knows 



446 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

very well that the period will come about in eternity, when the 
human soul shall be as perfect as he himself now is; nay, when 
she shall look down upon that degree of perfection as much as 
she now falls short of it. He admitted that the higher nature 
of the cherubim is, indeed, still in progression, and preserving 
his distance and superiority in the scale of being ; but that he 
knows that how high soever the station is of which he stands 
possessed at present, the inferior nature will at length mount- 
up to it, and shine forth in the same degree of glory. With 
what astonishment and veneration, he added, may we look 
into our own souls, where there are such hidden stores of 
virtue and knowledge, such inexhaustible sources of perfection ! 

I had no notion of dwelling so long in company with this 
pleasing writer when I introduced him, but finding a few notes, 
taken from his w T ritings years ago, folded up with other manu- 
script, I considered them too good to be withheld from the 
notice of yourself, especially your Mend, if he have patience to 
read them. He concluded, if my notes do not deceive me, 
with the following sweet thoughts : that we know not yet what 
we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to con- 
ceive the glory that will be always in reserve for him ; that the 
soul, considered with its Creator, is like one of those mathe- 
matical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity, 
without a possibility of touching it ; and can there be a thought 
so transporting as to consider .ourselves in these perpetual 
approaches to Him, who is not only the standard of perfection, 
but of happiness ? 

But who is this that writes so convincingly and so charm- 
ingly of the powers and prospects of the human soul ? Who 
else but a Christian philosopher f " one who drank deep at the 



TO THE SAME THE HUMAN SOUL. 447 

fountain of human knowledge, without dissolving the pearl of 
his salvation in the draught ! " None but one well acquainted 
with the sacred volume could have mastered snch thoughts. 
The wisest and the best of heathen philosophers, even in 
the palmiest days of Greece and Rome, could not attain unto 
them. That they have, in some instances, verged upon some 
of these points, I will not deny, and, it would seem, almost 
treated them as certainties. But alas! how soon do we find 
them blurring them over, if not with contempt, yet with un- 
concealed doubt, and utter uncertainty ; even Cicero himself 
might be cited as an instance. Nor do I remember, just now, 
meeting with a single sentiment, either in the writings of the 
Peripatetici, or in those of Aristotle their master, that could be 
construed indisputably in favor of those sentiments already 
'credited to a Christian writer. 

As for the Epicureans, their motto was, " When death is, we 
are not." Pliny, after all his investigations, cuts the whole mat- 
ter short at a stroke : *' The soul and body have no more sense 
after death than before we were born." Tully, it is true, made 
some pleasing remarks on Scipio's dream, where he introduces 
the soul of a departed father, who he supposed had gone to 
heaven, encouraging his son to do service for his country, 
from his own notable example when alive ; and basing his en- 
couragement, as one from the spirit-land, on the most sure and 
certain place being reserved in heaven for those who procure 
weal for their country, either by freeing it from peril or in- 
creasing its happiness ! ' 

It is not, dear sir, by the glimmerings of ancient heathen- 
ism, any more than by the rush-light of modern deism, that 
the mind can be qualified for such an investigation. The geol- 



448 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

ogist who would critically examine strata of a given region of 
country, and ascertain the nature of those rocks and earths 
which seem to solicit the testimony of science, prefers the aid 
of the sun to rush-light, star-light, moon-light, or even torch- 
light. We may say the same regarding the light of revelation, 
for the proper understanding of the subjects in question. " I 
will take the map of Ireland, and lay it before me, and make 
mine eyes schoolmasters, to give my understanding to judge 
of your plot," said the old character in Spenser. The light 
by which he examined that map was not material to him. Not 
so with the man who drew it ; as sun-light is preferable to 
moon-light or candle-light, in obtaining a correct delineation 
of the surface of a country, even with no more sun than that 
Avhich on a certain morning dawned over the scenery of 
Eden : 

"The sun, scarce uprisen, 
Shot parallel to the earth his dewy ray, 
Discovering in wide landscape all the east 
Of Paradise, and Eden's happy plains!" 

But, in matters of religion, the reader as well as writer 
needs the light of Scripture. Indeed, there is no safety with- 
out it. 

******* 

The nimbleness of your sophisms betrays their own lightness 
to others, while they deceive yourself ! ^Esop tells us of ex- 
tremely wise frogs which had a great mind to some water, but 
they would not leap into the well, because they could not get 
out again ! But they were too wise to deny there was water 
down there, and good water, too ! An observation of an ac- 



TO THE SAME THE HUMAN SOUL. 449 

complished critic occurs to me, not unworthy of your consider- 
ation — that it is no uncommon thing for men in a confined circle 
of life, who have entered late upon important studies, to find 
new ideas, new to them, and, by their unlettered acquaintance, 
bear so strongly upon their mind that their understanding is 
darkened by excessive light — that in this state they are apt to 
speak of them in amazement, and, from their agitation, fancy 
they have never been laid open to others ! It might shock 
you were I to give you too strong an assurance that there are 
some plain people in this town who would not be backward in 
proving that your " discoveries " are nothing more than " old 
heresies newly vamped ! " When in the house of one of these, 
the other day, I happened on the following among his books, 
penned and printed centuries ago, by one of the old poets. 
After reading the piece over, I trust you will have sufficient 
candor and humility to admit that, at least in some " depart- 
ments of invention," there is really nothing new under the sun : 

" One thinks his soul is air ; another fire ; 
Another blood diffused about the heart; 
Another saith the elements conspire, 
And to her essence each doth give a part. 

" Some think one general soul fills every brain, 
As the bright sun sheds light on every star ; 
And others think the name of soul is vain, 
And that we only well-mixed bodies are 1 

" In judgment of her substance thus they vary, 
And thus they vary in judgment of her seat : 
For some her chair up in the brain do carry, 
Some thrust it down into the stomach's heat ! 



450 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

" Some place it on the root of life — the heart ; 
Some in the liver, fountain of the veins ; 
Some say she's all in all, and all in part ; 

Some say she's not contain'd, but all contains. 

" Thus the great clerks their little wisdom show, 
While with their doctrines they at hazard play, 
Tossing their light opinions to and fro 

To mock the lewd, as learned in this as they. 

" For why should wc the busy soul believe, 
When boldly she concludes of that and this, 
When of herself she can no judgment give, 

Nor how, nor whence, nor where, nor what she is?" 



CHAPTER LIX. 

TO ! A BRUSH WITH AN INFIDEL. 

jp* MAX in a fit of obstinate melancholy, insisted that he 
< ISSL had two devils in his head ; hut happily, between the 
^SJi two an idea found room that a certain person could 
cure him, and nobody else. On applying to the individual, he 
told him his sad story, and added that he had just been bidden 
by one of the devils to kill him. That he became a little ner- 
vous you will not wonder. Maintaining his self-possession, 
however, and discerning the man's case, he cheerfully prepared 
a remedy : a small piece of paper folded neatly hi shining silk, 
and suspended by a string from his neck, to which he added 
some necessary advice regarding his manner of living, to which 
was added the most important injunction of all, to " say his 
prayers before he went to bed every night." The man soon 
got well, and had no return of his disorder. 

The devil in the head I have sometimes suspected to be the 
origin of certain blasphemous notions, with which some people, 
much to my annoyance, are afflicted ! If it be so, he is often 
exorcised from thence by the power of the Holy Spirit and the 
force of truth ! But to the point in hand : I reserve the 
right of judgment as to how far I may proceed in detailing 
the opinions which it is necessary to assail. A clear array of 
truth may sweep them from the field, before a congregration 



452 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

has time to inspect the colors and weapons of the opposing 
squadrons. It is the truth I desire the people shall remember, 
and not error. Thus far my spiritual tactics, as a general rule ; 
hut " circumstances alter cases," you know. If at any time it 
is otherwise, there are satisfactory reasons ; that is all. The 
remark of a shrewd man is applicable : " If owls will not be 
hooted at, let them keep close within the tree, and not perch 
upon the upper boughs ! " which they usually have sense 
enough to do ! 

As to yourself, I rejoice that the negation of truth in your 
head has not been able to silence the voice of conscience, nor to 
satisfy the cravings of your heart for that which unbelief cannot 
supply — light, faith, peace, love, and holy joy ! Your friend 
speaks of the Bible as nothing more than "a specimen of 
Oriental literature." Indeed ! then we ought to have had the 
whole of it by this time ! The light of morning dawn is 
oriental light, is it not ? But is it anything the worse for that ? 
The sun comes down from the east, and is therefore an oriental 
sun, but we do not prize him any the less for that! He would 
be considered a fool who would argue from that circumstance 
that the sun is not adapted to enlighten and warm and bless 
the west and the north. The sun, like the Bible, springs from 
the east; but as nobody could make us believe that we have 
not the whole sun in the west, so none can cause us to doubt, 
that if the Bible be " Oriental literature," it is not a sample, but 
the whole of it, as it regards the Godhead, man, morals, and 
true religion, and as admirably adapted to the wants of the 
moral world as the sun is to our natural world. But this is only 
another blow at the Gospel, seeing that it has come to us from 
the same direction. 



A BRUSH WITH AN INFIDEL. 453 

The sages of Greece and Rome are the perplexity of 
modern infidels, who are fond of quoting them as examples of 
what the intellect of man could achieve without the Bible — 
any thing to get rid of the Bible and its divine authority. 
" Those who no longer exist can no longer suffer," was one of 
their axioms, chiefly used for the purpose of arming their dis- 
ciples against the fear of death. But on occasions not a few 
•they had juster ideas of man and his destiny. A consciousness 
of great mental power in themselves, and an inability to trace 
in matter the properties of mind, led them to some very beauti- 
ful conclusions, which, alas ! were dissolved and dissipated in 
their next course of reasoning ! One has only to appeal to the 
writings of Cicero regarding these philosophers, to dispel the 
illusion, and undermine and silence those infidel batteries 
thrown up in modern times against the Scriptures. 

In the summer of 1835, when journeying between Albany 
and Whitehall, in the State of New York, part of it was per- 
formed in one of the old stage coaches, so fast disappearing 
from the roads. We soon found we had a determined deist 
among us, an intelligent man, and ready for an attack on Chris- 
tianity when opportunity offered, for which he had not long to 
wait. Opposite to him sat a gentleman, an entire strange to 
me, of refined and cultivated manners, and fine conversational 
powers. The interchange of thought between these two be- 
came quite animated and interesting. All but these were silent. 
The deist was cornered sooner than he expected, and seemed 
in danger of losing his temper. He despised the Bible, and 
considered it " an assuming and useless book ; " and strongly 
insisted that the ancient pagan philosophers, as some called 
them, reasoned quite as well upon the existence of a God, and 



454 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

the nature of the human soul, as those who have boasted so 
largely of having the vantage ground afforded by the Bible. 
" Be so kind, sir," said his opponent, " to favor us with some 
specimens of their mode of reasoning?" He did so, with 
considerable tact and readiness; exclaiming, as he concluded, 
" What can be clearer than all this ? Why send your agents 
among a people who have been favored with such lights and 
literature as we haye but glanced at ? " With admirable in- ' 
genuity and force, he was met with the reply, that those 
heathen sages had not proposed a single truth that we find not 
in the Bible, and stated there with much more clearness and 
certainty, and clothed with a beauty of language much su- 
perior to anything yet noticed in their writings ; that the best 
we could say of his authors was that they wrote as well as 
could be expected under the circumstances ; that, were it not 
for the mortifying contradictions found in the sentiments and 
opinions even of the same men, they might well win our ad- 
miration : writing as they did by the light of their natural 
reason, which, in comparison of the light of divine revelation 
was as the light of the moon to the dazzling splendor of the 
sun, they deserve credit for having done so well. But if he 
thought people would be willing, in our times, to be setback to 
think and write under the glimmer decreed to them, in prefer- 
ence to the glorious light of Gospel day with which we are fa- 
vored, he was grievously mistaken ; as well might he suppose 
that people would prefer moonlight instead of sunlight for the 
transaction of business. He went on to inquire of the deist 
whether, if his pagan sages made out so well under the moon- 
light of reason, it might not be presumed they would have 
written yet better and nobler things under the sunshine of rev- 



A BRUSH WITH AN INFIDEL. 455 

elation f How could he avoid the admission, seeing that he 
could not assign one new truth, regarding God, or the soul, or 
morals, not already recorded in the Bible, and recorded there 
ages before some of his ancient worthies were born, proved by 
evidence most indisputable, from the pages of antiquity ? . 

The deist, it was evident, had never before viewed 
matters exactly in this light, and became somewhat too warm 
in dispute, but without proper material to maintain his 
ground. The Christian religion came in for its share of re- 
proach, arising from the misconduct of some of its professors. 
This, as we expected, brought out the Christian gentleman to 
delineate the character of pagan religion and of its professors. 
This was a troublesome theme to the deist. For it was plain 
the religion of the Gospel absolutely prohibited such follies 
as some of its professors do commit from time to time ; 
p whereas the religion to which his pagan sages belonged coun- 
tenanced the most obscene rites and the grossest immoralities ; 
and, besides, the gods they worshipped were of the basest 
character, and examples of the grossest sensuality. 

It is out of my power to do justice to the talent displayed 
in this exciting debate ; and, as I took no notes at the time, 
I do not pretend to give the exact language : I only write from 
the pleasing impression left upon my mind, which abided 
most sweetly for many a day. The deist endeavored to main- 
tain his ground obstinately ; but what could he do ? Even 
Cicero himself owning, " If we could come into the world in 
such circumstances as that we could clearly and distinctly have 
discerned nature herself, and have been able in the course of 
our lives to follow her true and uncorrupted directions, this 
alone might have been sufficient, and there would have been 



456 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

little need of teaching and instruction ; but now the light of 
nature has given us only some small sparks of right reason, 
which we so quickly extinguish with corrupt opinions and 
evil practices that the true light of nature nowhere appears ; " 
and the venerable Jamblicus, besides, " It is manifest that those 
things are to be done which are pleasing to God ; but what 
they are it is not easy to know, except a man were taught 
them by God himself or by some person who had received them 
from God himself or obtained the knoioledge of them by some 
divine means." What deist could withstand such testimonies 
as these ? or reply to such wants and longings after some- 
thing more certain and infallible in matters of faith and prac- 
tice — even by some of his much-admired pagan worthies ? — so 
undeniable is the admission of the felt want of an inspired rev- 
elation from heaven. 

There can be no doubt that such admissions were but 
echoes to those which had prevailed in the minds of " the 
great souls," as Socrates called them, who had lived ages be- 
fore them, and of others who were their contemporaries. Add 
to this those raking observations of Locke, though a modern 
and a believer in the Bible, who, for the sake of argument, 
allowed that to be granted -which he admitted not to be true — 
that all the moral precepts of the Gospel were known to some- 
body or other amongst mankind before. But where, or how, 
or of what use, is not considered. Suppose they may be 
picked up here and there — some from Solon and Bias in 
Greece, others from Tully in Italy, and, to complete the work, 
let Confucius, as far as China, be consulted, and Anarcharsis 
the Scythian contribute his share — what will all this be to give 
the world a complete morality that may be to mankind an 



A BRUSH WITH AN INFIDEL. 457 

unquestionable rule of life and manners, such as that we 
possess with the Bible in our hands? Could the saying of 
Aristippus or Confucius giv r e it an authority ? Was Zeno 
a lawgiver (he inquired) to mankind ? If not, what he or 
any other philosopher delivered was hut a saying of his. Man- 
kind might hearken to it or reject it ; they were under no ob- 
ligation : the opinion of this or that philosopher was of no 
authority ! So much for Locke ! As to the deist, he sallied 
out " on his own hook," to prove that he himself could surpass 
any of the ancient heathen in reasoning upon any or all of 
these subjects, entirely independent of the Bible ! 

We listened, of course, with much curiosity, as he warmed 
into zeal and eloquence, gave the back of his hand to all Scrip- 
ture, and pushed his argument to what he considered a bril- 
liant and triumphant conclusion ! But it was evident he owed 
most of his elevated thoughts to the very Bible he had so con- 
temptuously rejected. His opponent asked him to hold up a 
little — that he could not allow him to canter off at that rate, 
in the use of ideas drawn from the Holy Scriptures, indifferent 
to the moral honesty which required an acknowledgment of 
his source of information ! — that he cut as ridiculous a figure 
as the man who would light a candle, and, turning his back 
upon the glorious sun in the sky, should run along, calling 
upon all his neighbors to observe and see how he could show 
them the beauty and majesty of the surrounding scenery, but 
says not a .word about the sun that was doing all this before 
he lighted his candle, and which at the moment is irradiating 
the whole landscape with his beams — that such was the folly 
of our deist scampering off, rush-light of infidelity in hand, 

and his back toward the sun of revelation, so evidently shower- 

20 



45 S ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

iog him with its beams ! he all the while protesting his inde- 
pendence of that divine luminary ! " See ! see ! what a blaze 
of light I can create ! " exclaims the man, while the broad sun 
of revelation is blazing behind him ! 

A few more pointed remarks drove the deist from his 
ground, and he began to pour contempt upon priests of all 
sort?. The gentleman replied that he held the ministers of the 
Gospel, of all denominations, in very high esteem, and that 
anything he might have to say about a few who had disgraced 
their profession, could not possibly change his good opinion of 
the rest ; that he had a high respect for. this class of his fellow- 
citizens. The debate closed, and the deist observed to one 
near him that he. suspected the gentleman was a minister him- 
self, and that had he known that at the beginning he would 
have shunned the encounter ! 

'This little episode recalled that noble defence of Tertullian, 
in ancient times, against the attacks which the Gospel was 
then sustaining from heathen critics, in those early ages of 
Christianity. " Which of your poets" said he, " which of your 
sophists have not drunk from the fountains of the prophets ? 
It is from these sacred sources likewise that your philosophers 
have refreshed their thirsty spirits ; and if they found anything 
in the Holy Scriptures to please, their fancy, or to serve their 
hypotheses, they turned it to their own purpose, and made it 
serve their curiosity, not considering these writings to be sacred 
and unalterable, nor understanding their sense; every one tak- 
ing or leaving, adopting or remodelling, as his imagination led 
him. Nor do I wonder that the philosophers played such foul 
tricks with the Old Testament, when I find some of the same 
generation among ourselves, who have made as bold with the 



A BRUSH WITH AN INFIDEL. 459 

New, and composed deadly mixtures of Gospel and opinion, led 
by a philosophizing vanity." It seems difficult to persuade 
infidels in our times how much they owe to the Scriptures in 
their manner of exalting natural religion, as they call it. 



CHAPTER LX. 

REPLIES TO HEARERS. 

* FK^ tne inquiry concerning " religious gayety" etc., I 
r4\JLS reply, seriousness is highly becoming in a Christian. 
W^>" p All nature seems to be serious — the rolling thunder and 
its lightning; the flower at your feet as you walk in the fields, 
and the remotest star; the tombstones, and the church spire 
stretching heaveuw r ard above them ; and countless other things 
around and over us, are serious ; and why should not we, with 
destinies so tremendous at stake, and eternity so near ? There 
is a " gayety," if you will so name it, which is even enjoined in 
Scripture ; but not such as the world esteems, but that which is 
akin to "Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all 
ye that are upright in your hearts.' 1 '' Such, and such only, have 
a right to be gay. All other classes of our fellow-men, who 
pretend to gayety, resemble a parcel of men in prison under 
sentence of death, attempting to be gay ! Ponder the glowing 
sentiments of the seraphic Young : 

" Retire, and read thy Bible, to be gay ; 
There truths abound of sov'reign aid to peace : 
Ah ! do not prize them less because inspired, 
As thou, and thine, are apt and proud to do. 
If not inspired, that pregnant page had stood 
Time's treasure ! and the wonder of the wise ! " 



REPLIES TO HEARERS. 461 

Those other "fancies" were rightly named. I noticed 
some children the other day amusing themselves in creating 
and floating away soap bubbles ; very fine things they appeared, 
vying with the rainbow as they sailed in the air ; and the chil- 
dren clapped their hands, their eyes sparkled, and they were 
mightily pleased ; but a slight puff of wind dissolved them into 
a dirty drop of water, and the glory disappeared. Older chil- 
dren have their bubbles too ; but they do what children will 
not — risk their souls' eternal interest upon them. Nothing but 
fancies, mere fancies, my friend, having no solidity, nor founda- 
tion in the realities of Scripture truth. A breath of Scripture 
would dissolve any of them. Like the fanciful pleasures of 
the world, too, their dissolution only shows of what they 
were made, and how they sully the soul that dallies with 
them. 

Be not offended ; but apply it, if you know where it may ; 
if not, drop it. But one now in eternity observed, u If a man 
fancy he shall die like a dog, no one need marvel that he lives 
like a dog, snarling for the bones of worldly vanities, which 
even children contemn." Ay, sir ! and how many such have I 
seen acting like dogs, barking at what they could not under- 
stand, or did not wish to understand, their ill nature quite for- 
bidding them ! They are to be pitied, for they do not seem 
to be aware, that in carrying their instincts too far, they only 
win from some a dog's respect — the dread of which, let me 
tell you, holds many a skeptic in check. In doing so, he is 
very well aware he secures for himself the confidence and re- 
spect of men whose good opinion is worth something, even for 
this present world ; and that the contrary course would sink 
him in their estimation — as 



462 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

" Useless while he lives, and when he dies 
Brings into doubt the wisdom of the skies." 

2. " An honest skeptic " will, we hope, exercise patience, 
and allow us the liberty he claims for himself, that of " free 
thinking" and '■'freedom of speech" Far was it from my 
thoughts to excite employers against persons in their employ ! 
I only stated a fact which few present doubted, that such 
have a better foundation for trust where a servant believes the 
Bible and fears God than if he did not. Can you doubt it 
yourself? "But such statements and invidious distinctions 
ought not to be made in the pulpit." Why not ? Truth is 
never out of place in the pulpit. I only stated a fact, and, 
although I would deprecate hypocrisy for worldly advantage, 
as much as yourself, yet I rejoice over any fact that may com- 
pel infidelity to hide its head, and betake itself to the dark- 
ness which best becomes it. Take no offence where none 
was intended. This, as society is now constructed, must be 
the prevailing sentiment, whether the pulpit be silent or no. 
If your infidelity inspire you with faith in some future revolu- 
tions to be effected by it in the state of society, why, sir, as the 
Christian has to live by faith, drawing all the comfort from it 
that he can, I see not but you must try to do the same ! — 
ay ! and sing with those in " Club No. 1 " — 

" There are better days a-coming, boys I 
There are better days a-coming ! " 

If certain of your company propose to offer some annoy- 
ance on this account, I suppose I must bear it patiently, like a 
Christian ; but it will surely be made to recoil upon them by 
Divine Providence. They had better not be over hasty. I 



REPLIES TO HEARERS. 463 

repeat it again, I had no intention to create suspicion noth- 
ing of the sort. The sting of the remark lay in its truthful- 
ness. .It was hut the echo of sentiments more frequently ut- 
tered between partners in business and committees of corpora- 
tions than you or your party seem aware of — that corrupt, un- 
christian, and anti-Bible principles afford but an indifferent 
basis for trust, or guarantee for faithfulness. Cases of decep- 
tion, arising from gross hypocrisy, may occur, and do occur ; 
nevertheless, by the good providence of God, this foundation 
stands yet sure in the minds of capitalists and employers. 
They return to it after every shock, as if it were a settled prin- 
ciple, that whatever be their own moral character, there is a 
surer basis for trust on this principle than any other. That 
they hope, in some cases, and trust an infidel servant, I will 
not deny ; but their hope lies in this, that he has a sufficient 
sense of honor to live above his principles — certainly not in the 
principles themselves. I tell you now, and you need not go 
far to find such, there are gentlemen who have their eyes upon 
such free thinkers and free talkers, ay, though they say but lit- 
tle, they have their eyes open, and ears too. They think it 
well and safe to write over some characters what the turnpike 
man wrote over his gate : 

"no trust." 

That it is " disagreeable," no one can deny ; and perhaps an 
" unfounded prejudice," may be equally true ; but who is to 
blame ? If men are not omniscient, can it be a fault to be 
prudent? That it is a preventive to talent, is more than 
likely ; but to what but the true cause should we impute the 
depreciation ? I have named it. The famous Burleigh was 



461 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

severe enough : he advised never to trust any man not of sound 
religion ; and the reason he gave for this was, he that is false 
to God, never can be true to man. If your own conscience 
speaks of better things, permit me to congratulate your ability 
in rising above the principles you have professed — of proving 
that the stream may rise higher than the fountain ! 

3. To another. The name John is not found in the Old 
Testament — at least, I do not remember having met with it 
there ; nor does it occur more than twice in the New — that is 
my impression just now. If you have time you can search 
and satisfy yourself, although it is of but little importance. 
The two Johns to which I refer, are John the Baptist, and 
John the Evangelist. The former was once compared to the 
morning star, which ushered in the Gospel day — heralded the 
rising of " the Sun of Righteousness " upon our world ; the 
latter to the evening star, which appeared long after that sun 
had set in blood over Calvary, shining serenely and beautifully 
upon the seven churches of Asia till nearly the close of the 
first century of the Christian era." 

The fable of " The Wandering Jew " is a poor comment 
upon John xxi. 22 : " If I will that he tarry till I come, what 
is that to thee? " and receives no countenance from any Chris- 
tian authority, nor Jewish. The meaning of our Lord was, 
that the disciple of whom he spake should die a natural death, 
and not by martyrdom, as Peter and the other apostles — that 
he should remain upon earth until Jesus came for him, which 
he did, in the ninetieth or one hundredth year of his life. 

" The Wandering Jew " is a myth — that is, an imaginary 
persouage. And so is the Jew Ahasuerus, who, according to 
the legend, offered indignity to our Lord on his way to Cal- 



REPLIES TO HEARERS. 465 

vary — striking him with his foot in contempt, when he tottered 
and sank beneath the weight of his cross before the door of 
his dwelling ; for which act he was condemned to be a restless 
fugitive over the earth, until the second coming of Christ. But 
what is every Jew but in a sense a " Wandering Jew " ? — alien 
and fugitive among all nations he is ; such are the Jews as a 
people, who cannot die or become extinct, until the Lord come 
again — until they acknowledge and receive Jesus Christ as their 
Messiah and King; when they shall be reinstated in more than 
their former glory ! 

******* 

4. I do not deny that Burleigh's sentiment may be abused, 
and is often, by bigots, who not unfrequently are poor judges 
of what is " sound in religion." Bigotry, it is notorious, has 
often stigmatized that as unsound which had as much to sup- 
port its orthodoxy, or more, than its own creed ? But the 
phrase "false to God " distinguishes Burleigh's meaning, 
which signifies the denial of the truth of God's own declara- 
tions in the Bible. "He that believeth not God, hath made 
him a liar ! " (1 John v. 10.) Is this not being fahe to God ? 
What reliance is to be placed upon any man who virtually 
calls his Maker a liar ? Perhaps, sir, were you to speak out 
all that is in your heart — all you know of yourself, and all 
that you know of others — it might become pretty evident that 
you are not so much at disagreement with Burleigh as sup- 
posed ! * 

* Yesterday, at the meeting of the Pennsylvania Bible Society in this 
city, one of the speakers, Dr. Brainard, related an incident of his stu- 
dent days, which made a strong impression upon his mind at the time. 
He had been on a visit to Pennsylvania, and attended a meeting of thai 

20* 



466 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

5. With regard to "the final destiny of the departed 
heathen who never heard of Christ," the Judge of all the 
earth has done right. That Christ " tasted death for every 
man" and that " he is the propitiation, not for our sins only, 
but also for the sins of the whole ivorld" is the unequivocal 
and undeniable testimony of the New Testament. How far 
the benefits thereof are extended to such as have lived and 
died without having heard of this boundless love of God, 
we must await the revelations of eternity to know. It is rea- 
sonable we should entertain strong hope upon the subject. 
That an impure and wicked soul shall enter heaven, be he 
heathen or anything else, we cannot believe. But against such 
in heathen lands, who have walked uprightly, according to the 
light vouchsafed unto them, we cannot believe that the gates 
of heaven will be closed ; the universal atonement of Christ 
for the sins of the whole world must, however, be the prevail- 
ing cause. Who could read those touching remarks of Soc- 
rates to his sympathizing friends, before drinking that poisoned 
cup to which he was condemned by his prejudiced judges, 
without indulging such a hope ? He was discoursing with 
them on the immortality of the soul. " Whether or no," con- 
tinued the sage, " God will approve of my actions, I know not ; 

society, over which the venerable Bishop White presided. On his re- 
turn east, the captain of the boat on which he had taken passage had 
his trunk broken open and robbed of $22,000. It was resolved to 
search the baggage of the passengers, and his trunk was taken into the 
cabin with others to be examined. When it was opened, and some of 
the clothing was removed, a Bible was seen. " Shut up the trunk," 
said the captain. " You need not look further ; a young man who carries 
a Bible with him will not steal."— Philadelphia, Pa., May 3, 1860. 



REPLIES TO HEARERS. 467 

but this I am sure of, that I have at all times made it my en- 
deavor to please him, and I have a good hope that this my 
endeavor will be accepted" by him." It is widely different, 
depend upon it, with those who live and die impenitent under 
the Gospel. 

The " Critique on the Bible " betrays both prejudice and 
careless reading. It reminds one of the " Book Notices " de- 
partment of some periodical, where we find, frequently, crude 
and unworthy impressions, evidently gathered from the title- 
page of a book, and a hasty glance at the "Table of Con- 
tents," and not from a fair, patient, and faithful reading of the 
book; either deceiving the public through partiality for the 
author, or damaging the work through some prejudices against 
him, or from sheer carelessness. If they have not found time 
to read it, let them honestly say so, or return the book to the 
publisher. 

A finer mind than either of us, I fancy, with superior ad- 
vantages, was of quite a different opinion regarding the Bible. 
I refer to Sir W. Jones, who, on a blank leaf at the end of his 
Bible, after having read it carefully through, and with the 
deepest attention, left the following record : " I have rcgularl}'- 
and attentively perused the Holy Scriptures, and am of the 
opinion that this volume (independently of its divine origin) 
contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more 
pure morality, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than 
can be collected from all other books, in whatsoever age or .lan- 
guage they may have been written. The unrestrained applica- 
tion of them to events which took place long after their pub- 
lication, is a solid'ground for' belief that they are genuine pro- 
ductions, and consequently inspired." A great scholar said of 



468 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

the Bible and Christianity, ages ago, that were he to begin 
once more to be a scholar, he would choose first to be a Chris- 
tian ; and that were he graceless, he would read the Bible, if 
from no other motive than the excellency of its matter, the 
strength of its arguments, and the wonderful variety in its 
style and story! — that whatever things are to be priced in 
authors generally, are but fragmentary : if we want to find the 
entire of all that is admirable and worth knowing, we must 
return to the Holy Scriptures ! 

He observed, further, that he would learn " Christ's Gospel," 
were it only for bare learning's sake ; to which he would add 
another fact, that the fine-spun abstractions, extractions, subtil- 
ties, and demonstrations of all learning were as nothing, when 
compared with that great mystery recorded in 1 Tim. iii. 16, 
in which, he declared, he found a study worthy even of a 
"Doctor Angelicus ! " and demanding in the present world all 
the learning and intellect of the most gifted son of Adam. 

Be not offended at my plainness. Your acquaintance with 
the themes you contemn with so much assurance, is evidently 
superficial. Job and Solomon found nothing equal to that 
heavenly wisdo?n, in the- choicest cabinets of the lapidaries of 
their times. (Job xxviii. 15-20; Prov. iii. 13-15.) Nor is it 
likely they would alter their opinion were they upon the earth 
at the present time, especially as the treasures of the New Tes- 
tament would be added to " wealth of preference." 

Judge Hale, in a letter to his son, observed, " There is no 
book like the Bible, for excellent learning, and wisdom, and use ; 
it is want of understanding in them who think or speak other- 
wise." Dr. Samuel Johnson, a little before he died, and in the 
silent watches of the night, beckoned to his bedside a young 



REPLIES TO HEARERS. 4G9 

gentleman who sat up with him during the night, and addressed 
him thus : " Young man, attend to the advice of one who has 
possessed a certain degree of fame in this world, and who will 
shortly appear before his Maker : read the Bible every day of 
your life." The celebrated Earl of Rochester, in his last ill- 
ness, would frequently lay his hand upon the Bible, and say, 
" There is true philosophy ; there is wisdom that speaks to the 
heart ; a bad life is the only forcible objection to this book." 
Ponder this last sentence, and let me ask your conscience 
whether your objection to the Bible may not be traceable to 
the same cause ? 

The advice of another eminent gentleman, in a letter to his 
son, now lies before me : " Let me exhort you to read, with the 
greatest attention, both the Old and New Testaments ; you 
will find your mind extremely becalmed in so doing, and every 
tumultuous passion bridled by that firm belief of a resurrection, 
which is so evidently marked out and impressed upon man- 
kind by Christianity." 



CHAPTER LXI. 

TO THE SAME — THE BIBLE VINDICATED. 

^pSf^ELL ! but is it not singular, on your principles, that 
K"' God has given us a sun, whereby we may safely regu- 
Z^h^ late our time-pieces, and yet has denied us a revela- 
tion of his will, whereby we may as safely regulate our opinions ? 
What tbinkest thou ? But the Bible is our spiritual sun. It 
is to our minds and opinions what our natural sun is to our 
judgments and to our time-pieces ; and, as D'Aubigne says, 
"A single ray of God's word, enlightens more than all the 
wisdom of man." Melanchthon sweetly observed, " The Scrip- 
tures impart a marvellous light : it is the heavenly ambrosia." 
The Psalmist esteemed the commandments of God above gold, 
yea, above fine gold — that the precepts of God are manifestly 
right, and through them he was led to hate every false way. 
(Ps. cxix. 127, 128.) 

The best way to answer your question, " But is the Bible 
from God ? " is to ask auother : Does the sun shine in the 
heavens ? " It does ! " exclaims one. But how do you know 
that? "How do I know it? It tells me so itself! I do not 
want a rush-light or a torch-light to show it me ; or to know 
who put it there ! Does the Bible come from God ? It does ; 
who tells me so ? Its intrinsic excellencies prove it, and its 



THE BIBLE VINDICATED. 471 

external beauties strengthen the proof." Suppose, sir, I admit 
the sentiment. " It is with our judgments as our watches ; 
none go just alike, yet every one believes his own." And what 
of that ? there is the sun ! which is to blame, the sun or our 
watches \ If the works are unclean, or the regulator has lost 
the command, it does not surprise us that the watch and the sun 
disagree ; but would it not be foolish to argue from this that 
the sun is an unreliable standard of time? By inattention to 
the sun, men may allow their watches to go all wrong, but it 
would be ludicrous enough to hear such men wrangling as to 
which watch was right ! The fault lies in their watches, or indif 
ference to the true time indicated by "the king of day," rather 
than in that celestial luminary. The application to the Bible 
is so plain, and to the state of men's judgments, that enlarge- 
ment seems needless. 

This may be added, however : if creed-makers and the self- 
opinioned are foolish enough to neglect the sun of revelation, 
tli ere is no good reason why you or I should do the same. If a 
few watch-makers in this city should choose to set their regula- 
tors at variance with the sun and in defiance of his noonday decis- 
ion, would that be " a convincing argument " against the sun, or 
a good reason why we should be governed by their time-pieces ? 
A minute or two might not be of much moment, but in the mat- 
ter of half an hour, or an hour, a serious inconvenience and loss ; 
but to mistake day-daion for noon, or nine o'clock at night for 
nine in the morning, we would not be slow in renouncing such 
time-keepers, and regulating our own by the great chronometer 
which God has placed in the sky, out of the reach of men's 
hands ! Supposing that we had taken due care to regulate our 
own time-pieces by the sun, should our neighbors be surprised 



472 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

at our confidence as to possessing the true time ? or that we 
should be somewhat zealous in bringing about a uniformity in 
the matter of time ? 

It is on this principle we account for the fact that the hum- 
ble peasant, who reads his Bible and sincerely practises its 
teachings, stands usually so clear in the light of its doctrines, 
and so well proportioned in character; while some who are so 
far above and beyond him in wealth or learning, make such evi- 
dent fools of themselves in matters of doctrine — to say nothing 
of the sad inequalities and inconsistencies so noticeable in their 
moral character ! And so it was said of a pious and humble 
goatherd on the mountains of a far-distant land — one upon 
whose early days the sun of science never rose to illumine his 
intellect, attained an education from this book of God, which 
allied him to the celestial regions ; and that those pure words 
of inspiration, baptized on his wild mountain-altar of devotions, 
had given him words more pure and lofty than his mountain 
prospect of stars — purer than the dark-blue heavens around 
him, when night threw her mantle over him and his goats and 
his mountains ! 



Ay ! I agree with you there ! the topographical correct- 
ness of the' Scriptures is disturbing to men of your way of 
thinking. Had the Bible been written in any other country 
than where the scenes it describes transpired, the topographic 
mistakes would have been numerous — perhaps, as a shrewd 
brother observed, Mont Blanc had been substituted for Leb- 
anon ! 

u Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, 

And whitens with eternal sleet ; 



THE BIBLE VINDICATED. 473 

"While summer, in a vale of flowers, 
Is sleeping rosy at his feet." 

But the truthfulness of its topography is one of its proofs, as 
well as its beauties. Keep your eyes open to this fact when 
reading the Scriptures. 

Write freely — all that is in your heart. No offence what- 
ever. Injure me you cannot; but, pray, do not injure yourself. 
For my part, I am much of the opinion of him who insisted 
that that faith stands but totteringly that stands only because 
men hear not what infidels say against it. I like the idea of 
another, that he valued not the mind that was stereotyped ; 
but rather preferred the sort of mental type that could be 
changed when required — that will admit of additions and im- 
provements, such as increased light and intelligence demand ! 
Stillingfleet says it is not uncommon for weaker heads, when 
they see the battlements shake, to suspect that the foundation 
is not firm enough ; and to conclude, if anything is called 
in question, that there is nothing certain ! — a fruitful cause, 
I fancy, of the backslidings of some into secret or open 
infidelity, who seemed once to be well confirmed in the truths 
of religion. 

But do not, I beseech you, contradict facts which are as pat- 
ent on the pages of history as the sun and moon and stars in 
the firmament of heaven ! The tendencies of such sentiments 
are inevitable. If men are so bad who as yet disavow them, 
what would they become were they to avow them ! What in- 
fidelity can accomplish in a single individual, and in families 
and neighborhoods, and also in a nation, is no secret to the 
world. We may say of a prospective revival of it, as a writer 
did of a certain revolution, that it would not resemble a thun- 



474 ARROWS FROM MY QUIVER. 

der cloud passing over the harvest field, which though it pros- 
trated the crop, yet leaves the soil in its native fertility ; bat 
it is that which tears up and exterminates the soil itself! 

I am willing, of course, to allow the liberty I take — of 
speaking or writing freely without offence. It is no argument 
against the Gospel that certain minds do not perceive its nature. 
A jackdaw would rather have a grub than a jewel ; and a dog 
prefers a bone to a .pearl, simply because he knows not its 
value ! Every creature after his kind ; every sinner after his 
tastes and tendencies. I sometimes say to those who prefer 
the society of the world (what Jesus calls " the synagogue of 
Satan") to the privilege of belonging to the church, that they 
must not be surprised, if they will jump with the world, that 
they find some day they have jumped into hell ! If you will 
jump thus with the infidels, look out for a similar calamity ! A 
man lost a flock of lambs thus : Driving them over a bridge, 
something hindered their passage, and one of them leaped upon 
the parapet of the bridge, and, his legs slipping from under him, 
fell into the river. The rest, seeing him go over, followed at a 
jump, one after another, and the drowned were many. It was 
a great mistake in those dumb animals. Had they been en- 
dowed with reason, and been aware of the fate of those that 
had jumped before them, it would " have given them pause ; " 
but they were as regardless of the shepherd's voice as some of 
your sort are of the voice of the minister of God ; thus they 
jumped after each other to destruction. There arc numerous 
illustrations of this constantly occurring among sinners. Be 
awake to this fact when your companions are being thinned by 
death ; it may be your salvation ! 



THE BIBLE VINDICATED. 475 

But can you deny the propriety of that old maxim, long 
current among generations who have passed away — never to 
risk the loss of a present advantage, unless you have a good 
prospect, nay, a strong certainty, of acquiring that which is 
superior ? The present advantage of a real Christian is, that 
sudden death would be sudden glory. " What hath the world 
to equal this ? " as the old song has it. 

Conscience is a disagreeable monitor, when once aroused. 
I know, also, that light disturbs it — that it is more at ease in 
communion with darkness and deception than under the broad 
daylight of truth — unvarnished truth. You know the mean- 
ing of the hint, therefore I need say no more. You have read 
of that poor fellow in London, I suppose, who owed much 
money, and had much fear of his creditors? how that when 
walking the streets one evening, his cloak caught upon a 
tenter-hook, when he instantly turned, saying, "At whose 
suit?" He thought a bailiff had arrested him ! There is, per- 
haps, no faculty of the soul more wide awake than fancy, 
when guilt lies heavy upon the conscience. Those who know, 
declare it much easier to stifle confession on the lips of con- 
science, than to prevent it from using its sting. A confession 
of sin to God, aud forsaking it too, would soon be followed by 
mercy, through faith in Christ. How much better to take 
this course than lead such a life ! 

One observation more : You and your friends live in a free 
country ; and, of course, you can hear or forbear, believe or 
disbelieve, as you choose. Nothing is easier than to avoid " this 
plague ; " but whether you can avoid the plague of your own 
consciences, is another question. And then death is on the full 
march to meet you, and that fearful something beyond, which 



476 ARROWS FROM MY QUIYER. 

something within tells you is waiting for you. Ah ! sirs, these 
things puzzle the will, as Shakspeare says, and make most 
men willing rather to bear the ills they have, than fly to 
others which they know not of. And can you deny his con- 
clusion ? 

" Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all." 

As for Satan, I fear him too much, I confess, to be ruled 
by him. Much of their swaggering and boasting is mere bra- 
vado. Far more likely is it that what good Richard Baxter 
said to one in his day, is pretty applicable to most of you — 
that you are afraid enough of the devil, and the sight of him 
would make you tremble on your legs ; and yet you are not 
afraid to be ruled by him, and to follow him to your destruc- 
tion. 

But Satan understands how to manage them. If he blinds 
the minds of those that believe not, now, as he did in the 
days of St. Paul, and we have no reason to doubt it, it is to 
conceal himself and his plans to ruin them, as well as to prevent 
the glorious light of the Gospel from shining unto them. Be- 
sides, he has a great ambition to imitate God. When it was 
necessary to prevent the men of Sodom from finding Lot's 
door, the Lord sent his angel and smote them with blindness, 
so that find it they could not, but kept stumbling one against 
the other. And when Satan would prevent his dupes from find- 
ing the door of mercy, or a way out of their prison-house, he 
despatches a fiend from perdition to smite them with mental 
blindness. 

Poor sinners ! we can only pity and pray for you ; and if, 
when once out of doors, we are treated with a laugh for our 



THE BIBLE VINDICATED. 477 

pains, we are still, through grace, enabled to pity and pray on. 
We have only to look a little distance beyond, to maintain the 
spirit of both prayer and patience. Meantime, we offer you 
mercy from your much-offended God — mercy through the 
blood of the Lamb ! Oh ! repent, believe, and be saved ! 



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These works have been revised, and are brought out in the very best style, and 
make a handsome and valuable addition to the library. 

Price per Volume, $1.75. Price per Set, $6.50. 



The works of Rev. James Caughey,"" the distinguished revivalist, have had a 
most extraordinary sale. It is supposed that nearly one hundred thousand 
volumes of his works were sold in six years. The reader may inquire, What is 
there in them that has given them this unprecedented popularity ? There are 
other works displaying more talent, but their sale has been .limited. Mr. 
Caughey understands how to read the heart; be touches the secret springs of the 
soul; he captivates the reader at once by his earnest, impressive appeals. The 
spirit of Christ is breathed into every sentence, and it finds a response in the heart 
of the reader. His thoughts are fresh and vigorous, and always glow with a high 
and holy spirituality, and his appropriate and stirring illustrations give them 
wonderful power over the heart and conscience. Said Rev. J. V. Watson, now in 
heaven, "We have risou from an hour's reading of these works with our spirits 
more refreshed with the genuine unction— the holy passion of an evangelical 
revival spirit — than ever came over our hearts in the reading of the same number 
of pages in all the round of literature." 

Here is the secret of their success. They are full of the "genuine unction," 
and we see not how any one can read them without being moved to seek a higher 
state of spiritual life, and inspired with a stronger desire to do more for the cause 
of Christ. 

W. C. PALMER, Jr., 

PUBLISHER, 

14 BIBLE HOUSE, 

New York." 



